Yup, it sure was.
$4 an hour back then was "big money" for a kid just out of high school.
The Census ended and I took other jobs, often 2 or 3 part-time jobs at a time. [shoe stores, Holiday Inn hostess etc etc]
For $2.35 I sanded and filed beauty parlor furniture all night.
I walked a train track for nine blocks one way after taken two to three busses after work in high school. To clean floors. I got so good at it I could walk it bare foot in the dead of summer. Hot stuff :o) WI. Winter was different
Did it for three years and brought my first car