Percentage of college-educated workers who believe knowledge and skills in their field become quickly outdated, according to a survey for Instructure: 75
Percentage of the study's respondents who feel their employers aid them 100 percent in their career development: 12
Percentage of people who agreed that changes in their professional fields required them to update their knowledge and develop new professional skills: 90
Source: Instructure.
Percentage of lawyers who said "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee is the greatest novel ever written about the legal field, according to a survey by Robert Half Legal: 46
Ranks of "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens, "The Firm" by John Grisham and "Presumed Innocent" by Scott Turow on the list of top legal page-turners of all time: 2, 3, 4
Source: Robert Half Legal.
Projected number of mobile phones that will be sold in 2016, according to CCS Insight's global mobile phone forecast: 2.04 billion
Projected number of mobile phones that will be in use by 2020, with over three-quarters being smartphones: 7 billion
Projected number of mobile phones to be sold in China in 2016, the world's biggest market: 420 million
Source: CCS Insight.
Ranks of New Hampshire, South Dakota, Colorado, Virginia and Florida on the list of the states with the best taxpayer return on investment in 2016, according to WalletHub's analysis of the U.S. tax landscape: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ranks of North Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, New York and Delaware on the list of the states with the worst taxpayer return on investment in 2016: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Source: WalletHub.
Amount that developing and emerging economies lost in illicit financial flows from 2004 through 2013, according to a report from Global Financial Integrity: $7.8 trillion
Amount that flowed out of these economies in 2013 from tax evasion, crime, corruption and other illicit activity: $1.1 trillion
Percentage of illicit funds that end up in developed countries: 55
Percentage that ends up in offshore financial centers: 45
Source: Global Financial Integrity.
Percentage of U.S. workers who feel they are overweight, according to a CareerBuilder survey: 55
Percentage who said they are "too tired from work to exercise": 45
Percentage of Americans who are in debt, according to a survey conducted by Fifth Third Bank: 70
Percentage of those in debt who have no plan to pay it off: 30
Percentage of American adults who cited financial independence as a goal in their lives: 82
Source: Fifth Third Bank.
Ranks of Amazon, RCA, Apple, Verizon, LG and Samsung on the list of the most reliable brands, based on 60,000 annual service call requests to the 1-800-RESCUE-PC hot line: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Source: RESCUECOM.
Percentage of Americans who see being a doctor as a prestigious occupation, according to a Harris Poll: 90
Percentage of adults who would encourage a child to become a doctor: 90
Source: The Harris Poll.
Percentage of Americans who see this year's presidential primary race as more uncivil than civil, according to a poll by Weber Shandwick, Powell Tate and KRC Research: 61
Percentage of adult Americans who say a political candidate's tone or level of civility is somewhat important: 84
Percentage who say incivility in government prevents action on important issues here at home: 77
Source: KRC Research.
Idle Thought
"I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer." -- Douglas Adams, author (1952-2001)
(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre@bwr.eastlink.ca.)