have to be put back a month.

The strong economy in Bermuda has resulted in a lack of people eager to earn extra cash by working as enumerators during the summer.

Census superintendent Janet Smith Bradshaw said ideally they would have had about 300 people to visit households and collect information when the census was launched, but in reality there were only 200.

She said she has managed to recruit more people since, but has found it difficult to catch up on the backlog.

"We have been suffering from a shortage of enumerators, especially in the beginning.

"Normally, July would be our mopping up period, where we cover any missing spots, but now it looks like we will have to do that in August.

"We have put on additional training and have just started training another group this week. To cover the Island and give ourselves plenty of time, we will need another month.'' An amendment to the Census Act was tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday to allow the completion date to be put back.

Without the shift in deadline, some properties would be missed out.

"I don't think we will have any problem getting the date put back.

"There are 380 census districts and about 300 of those have already had enumerators assigned.

"We won't have too much of a problem assigning the others now, but it would have been easier if we had received enough people to do it at the beginning.

"We just found ourselves behind a little bit.'' There are 27,000 households on the Island and each one has to be visited during the census.

The last census was carried out in 1991, when the economy was not so buoyant, and census organisers were inundated with people eager to have a second job and earn extra cash.

But Mrs. Smith Bradshaw said this year it seemed everyone already had extra work and was able to earn additional money.