The U.S. Census Bureau has closed offices in several cities, including Seattle.
The restructuring, announced June 29, 2011, and completed at the end of December, also closed other regional offices in Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Detroit; and Kansas City, Kan.
The state of Washington now is served by the Los Angeles office, which also serves Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon, the Census Bureau said in a statement.
Most of the 45 permanent workers had retired or found other jobs by the time the Seattle office closed Dec. 28, said The Seattle Times, which added that three people were laid off.
Along with Los Angeles, offices remain open in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, New York and Philadelphia.
Some Census offices were closed as the agency moved to solicit more information from people through online surveys
This new six-region design allows about 630 supervisory staff to work out of their homes, the Census Bureau said.
The realignment moves the agency from a bricks-and-mortar model of regional offices to a virtual management structure and cuts the cost of surveys by an estimated $15 million to $18 million annually, the agency said.
About 270 permanent positions were cut, and about 88 of the permanent affected employees were placed into positions at Census Bureau headquarters or in one of the six remaining regional offices, while others have taken advantage of buyout or early retirement options, the agency said.
Staff at the Census Bureau’s regional offices collect data for surveys, update geographic features, disseminate statistics created from the data collection and serve as contacts for media and organizations to improve participation in censuses and surveys.
The Los Angeles office is at 15350 Sherman Way, Suite 400, in Van Nuys, Calif. The phone number is 818-267-1700 or 800-992-3530, and the email is Los.Angeles.Regional.Office@census.gov.
To learn more about the new regional office realignment and to view the states serviced by each office, visit www.census.gov/regions.