As they get ready to return to their classrooms, percentage of older tweens and teens (ages 11 to 17) who are most looking forward to a "fresh start," according to a survey by the YouthBeat insight service of Chicago-based C&R Research: 80
Percentage of kids (ages 6 to 10) who look forward to a fresh start: 39
Percentage of these kids who are most looking forward to seeing old friends at school: 80
Percentage of these same kids who are excited about seeing old teachers: 33
Source: C&R Research.
Percentage of adults ages 18 to 29 who say a landline phone is a necessity, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends project: 46
Percentage who say the same about a television set: 29
Source: Pewsocialtrends.org.
Percentage of U.S. small- and medium-sized businesses that have fallen victim to cybercrime, according to a Panda Security survey: 46
Percentage of businesses that are operating without anti-spam: 31
Percentage that have no anti-spyware: 23
Source: Panda Security.
Percentage of moms who agree it's a struggle to get kids to the dinner table, according to a survey conducted by Weinman Schnee Morais Inc.: 70
Percentage who say their kids complain about what's for dinner at least once a week: 50
Percentage who say they wish they had more recipes their family loved: 66
Source: Weinman Schnee Morais Inc.
Percentage of HR managers who said their greatest staffing concern is employee training and development, according to a survey by OfficeTeam: 45
Percentage who said retaining top-performing employees was their greatest staffing concern: 27
Source: OfficeTeam.
Percentage of general market shoppers who report that they "always" rely on a shopping list while in the store, according to a study by The Integer Group: 43
Percentage of shoppers who said they were enticed to buy something not on their list by either a sale or special promotion: 78
Source: Integer Group.
From nursery school to college, number of American students who are headed to the classroom -- more than one-out-of-four of the total U.S. population age 3 and over, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 76 million
Of the 56 million elementary and high school students enrolled this fall, percentage who will attend private schools: 11
Percentage of students whose parents report that their children often like going to school: 66
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Percentage of travelers polled from across the world who said that London's black cabs were far and away the pick of the world's taxis, according to the annual Hotels.com taxi report: 59
Percentage who said New York cabs were their favorite: 27
Percentage who cited Tokyo as their favorite: 26
Ranks of Berlin taxis and Bangkok's tuk tuk taxis on the list: 4, 5
Source: Hotels.com.
Percentage of active women who say that when they are working out regularly they feel more inclined toward romance, according to findings based on a survey sponsored by Propel Enhanced Water and conducted by Opinion Research Corp.: 51
Percentage who say they are more likely to want to go out on the town with friends: 37
Ranks of feeling healthier, more energized, stronger, more confident and more accomplished on the list of advantages non-active women said they would gain by working out regularly: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Source: Opinion Research Corp.
Percentage of employers who report that they are seeing experienced workers (those with more than 10 years experience) and mature workers (workers age 50 or older), apply for internships at their organization, according to a CareerBuilder survey: 23
Regardless of applicants' ages, percentage of employers who said they plan to hire interns during the remainder of 2010 to help support workloads: 27
Source: CareerBuilder.com.
Idle Thought
"The world is divided into armed camps ready to commit genocide just because we can't agree on whose fairy tales to believe." -- Ed Krebs, photographer
(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)