The current recession has almost every company in a state of red alert, cutting costs across the board, from canceling the year-end bonuses to purchasing cheaper toilet paper for office bathrooms. No expense is being spared.

However, the employee has been the most unfortunate victim of the recession. With unemployment at its highest rate in a quarter-century, tens of thousands of workers have found themselves in the cross-hairs of cost-cutting, and thousands more are wary of being next on the chopping block.

The mother of all surveys, the 2010 United States Census, may turn out to be the mother of all headaches for the new Census Chief, Robert M. Groves.

Faced with the possibility of computer glitches, operational missteps, and skyrocketing costs, surveying the nation’s population won’t be an easy task. President Obama selected Groves in early April and passed him the hot potato that’s expected to cost at least $15 billion, more than any previous count. Groves, who authored the books Surveying Victims and Survey Errors and Survey Costs, sounds like he was tailor-made for this position.