Percentage of HR managers who feel most employers put too little emphasis on emotional intelligence during the hiring process, according to a survey by OfficeTeam: 30
Percentage of HR managers who identified increased motivation and morale as the greatest benefit of having emotionally intelligent staff: 43
Ranks of reference checks and behavioral-based interview questions on the list of the most common ways companies gauge job applicants' EQ: 1, 2
Source: OfficeTeam.
Average financial loss through divorce (in cash and assets), according to a survey by Experian: $20,000
Percentage of respondents who say their former spouse ruined their credit: 44
As a result, percentage of respondents who say the financial loss of a divorce has them going so far as to say they'll never marry again: 39
Source: Experian Marketing Services.
Percentage of American workers who are saving, but saving no more than 10 percent of their pay, including one-quarter who are saving between 1 percent and 5 percent of their incomes, according to a Bankrate report: 48
Percentage of working Americans who say they don't need to save more: 5
Percentage of working Americans who aren't saving any of their incomes: 21
Rank of "have a lot of expenses" on the list of the biggest reasons for not saving: 1
Source: Bankrate.com.
Percentage of American credit card holders who had their annual fee waived or reduced upon request, according to a new CreditCards.com report: 82
Percentage who had their annual fee waived entirely: 51
Percentage who were successful in negotiating the fee to a lower amount: 31
Percentage of cardholders who have ever made that request: 11
Source: Creditcards.com.
Ranks of health care and the economy on the list of issues that most concern Americans, according to Ipsos research: 1, 2
Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.
Number of children under the age of 5 who are killed by environmental pollutants (that means 1 in 4 deaths of children aged 1 month to 5 years old) every year, according to the World Health Organization: 1.7 million
Source: World Health Organization.
Number of hours of sleep that is recommended per night, according to the American Academy of Neurology: 7 to 9
Percentage of women under 45 who have children who reported getting at least seven hours of sleep, compared to 62 percent of women without children: 48
Number of days per month that younger women with children reported feeling tired: 14 days
Number of days per month that women without children reported feeling tired: 11
Source: American Academy of Neurology.
Number of people who died in alcohol-impaired driving fatalities in 2015, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: 10,265
In 2016, percentage who admitted to driving when they thought they were over the legal limit one or more times within the previous 12 months, compared to 8.0 percent in 2015: 11.7
Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Year that Alexander Graham Bell made the first local telephone call, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1876
Today, number of cellphone subscriptions there are for every 100 people in the U.S.: 118
Of America's 118 million occupied housing units, percentage that have no phone service available: 2.5
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Percentage of pay-TV subscribers in U.S. broadband households that are bothered by the fact that advertisers use residents' personal viewing data to push personalized ads to them, according to research from Parks Associates: 59
Percentage of pay-TV subscribers who worry about the safety and use of their personal data when they use an online video service: 40
Source: Parks Associates.
Idle Thought
"And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." -- Anais Nin, writer
(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre@bwr.eastlink.ca.)