When asked if their company had experimented with alternatives to travel in 2008, percentage of business travelers who said they had tried video conferencing, according to a survey by Orbitz: 50

Percentage of business travelers who say they don't feel video conferencing is currently or would be as productive as an in-person meeting: 85

Source: Orbitz.

For those employed workers who will not be job hunting in 2009, percentage who said that happiness at their current position is their No. 1 motivation to stay put, according to a poll commissioned by SnagAJob.com: 65

Of those who plan on looking for a new job, percentage who said their greatest motivation is fear of layoffs: 19

Among salaried workers who plan to be on the hunt, percentage who said they are most motivated by layoffs: 30

Source: SnagAJob.com.

Percentage of Americans who report adjusting their driving habits in significant ways in response to surging gas prices early last year, according to a Gallup Poll: 64

Percentage who have reverted to their old habits as prices at the pump have plunged: 12

Source: Gallup.

When car shopping, percentage of women surveyed who negotiated the lease or purchase themselves, according a survey commissioned by Automall Network: 55

Percentage who felt they'd gotten the dealer's best price: 49

Percentage who felt they'd been treated unfairly as a female: 53

Percentage of all women surveyed who said they would prefer to use a professional service to conduct the negotiations, as they felt it would save them money: 81

Source: Automall Network.

Percentage of Americans who admit the economic downturn is heaping more stress on their family, according to a survey by Country Financial: 75

Percentage who say it has sparked more arguments with their spouse or children: 33

Source: Country Financial.

Ranks of Washington, D.C., London and New York on the list of the top global cities for foreign investors' real estate dollars, according to a survey of members of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) conducted by The James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison: 1, 2, 3

Number of the investors' top 10 global cities that are located in the U.S.: 5

Ranks of the U.S., Brazil, China, the U.K. and India on the list of countries voted by AFIRE as providing the best opportunity for capital appreciation: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Source: AFIRE.

Percentage of American workers who feel that Barack Obama's presidency will be good for the job market, according to a survey by Adecco: 67

Source: Adecco.

Percentage of working Americans who "agree" (52 percent strongly/28 percent somewhat) that technology gives their company/organization a competitive advantage in their industry, according to an Ipsos poll: 80

Percentage of workers who say that "technology is critical to their individual productivity at work" as well as their creativity: 78

Percentage of employees who "strongly agree" that their employer gives them excellent training on all the latest innovations in their industry: 41

Source: Ipsos Reid Public Affairs.

Percentage of corporate executives who believe that having minorities in senior executive positions is particularly important to providing new ideas and innovation and to better reflect the diversity of customers, according to a survey commissioned by The Executive Leadership Council and conducted by Harris Interactive: 75

Percentage of executives who attribute the serious challenges faced by African-American women in their climb up the corporate ladder to weaker, less strategic networks available to them: 31

Percentage who attribute the challenges to inaccurate perceptions of African-American women's capabilities in climbing the corporate ladder: 24

Source: Harris Interactive.

Percentage of technology decision-makers from around the world who believe that "poor application performance" results in significant financial losses for their organizations, according to the results of a study on information technology application performance conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Compuware: 64

Percentage of respondents who state that end users complain of poor application performance even when monitoring tools say everything is on target: 47

Percentage of the time that problems are not discovered until end users call the service desk: 64

Source: Compuware Corp.

Idle Thought

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." -- Albert Einstein

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)

Percentage of elite professionals (those earning more than $200,000 a year) who spend one to two hours each week networking, according to a study from Upwardly Mobile Inc. with the assistance of the Graziadio School of Business Management at Pepperdine University: 31

Source: Upwardly Mobile.

Ranks of Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States on the list of the world's freest economies, according to the 2009 Index of Economic Freedom, jointly published by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Number of consecutive years that Hong Kong has led the list: 15

Source: The Heritage Foundation.

In terms of the dollar value of balances carried by credit card users in the U.S., percentage who have between $5,000 and $20,000 in credit card debt, according to a survey by Standard and Poor's: 22

Percentage who have more than $40,000 in credit card debt: 3

When looking at their debt as a percentage of their available credit, percentage of respondents who are at or near the maximum limit of their primary card: 25

Source: Standard and Poor's ExecuComp.

After viewing a video news clip featuring a man seeking $1.5 million in return for donating his kidney to his ex-wife (who allegedly had an affair while they were married), percentage of Americans who do not believe the man should receive $1.5 million from his ex-wife for the donated kidney, according to a study was conducted by HCD Research: 76

Source: HCD Research Inc.

Percentage of executives from the banking and securities, financial services and technology industries who expect accounting fraud to increase during the next two years, according to the results of a poll conducted by Deloitte LLP: 63.3

To prepare for the risks that a downward economy poses, percentage of respondents who indicated that their organizations have established protocols for conducting investigations: 45.7

Source: Deloitte LLP.

Percentage of IT security practitioners who report that someone in their organization has had a laptop lost or stolen, according to a study conducted by Absolute Software Corp. and the Ponemon Institute: 92

Percentage who report that it resulted in a data breach: 71

Source: Ponemon Institute.

Percentage of American workers whose No. 1 work-life concern is keeping their job, according to an Adecco USA survey: 69

Percentage who are saving more money than they used to for potential unemployment: 24

Source: Adecco.

Percentage of Americans who are concerned about the nation's infrastructure, according to a poll conducted by Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research: 94

Percentage who are prepared to pay one percent more in taxes to rebuild America's infrastructure: 81

Percentage who most want to see exactly where the money is being spent: 24

Ranks of energy facilities, roads and highways, and clean air on the list of the priorities and concerns of Americans: 1, 2, 3

Source: Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research.

Ranks of the ability to shop 24 hours a day, timesaving, avoiding crowds and saving gas as the chief reason consumers shop online, according to a Nielsen Online survey: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: Nielsen Online.

Percentage of business travelers who say they watch more TV commercials in a hotel room compared to TV viewing at home, according to a survey conducted by Zoomerang for LodgeNet Interactive Corp: 28.3

Percentage who multitask more while watching TV at home than in a hotel: 43

Source: LodgeNet Interactive Corp.

Idle Thought

"One should count each day a separate life." -- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)

Percentage of American employees who describe their bosses as competent, according to a workplace survey by Randstad USA: 50

Percentage who perceive their boss as a great role model and mentor: 29

Percentage who believe their boss is their biggest advocate: 19

Percentage who feel motivated by their boss: 22

Source: Randstad USA.

Percentage of online shoppers who change their passwords only when or if required, according to the findings from the 2008 PayPal Trust and Safety Study: 34

Estimated percentage of consumers who use social networking sites where they post important family dates, family members' names, nicknames or pets' names that they use to create their passwords: 40

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Ranks of Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Phelps, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as the people that U.S. adults would most like to be neighbors with, according to a survey by real estate Web site Zillow.com: 1, 2, 3, 4

Ranks of Britney Spears, Rosie O'Donnell, Joe the Plumber and Lindsay Lohan as the people that U.S. adults would least like to be neighbors with: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: Zillow.

Percentage of Millennials (aged 14 to 25) who view the computer as more of an entertainment device than their TV, according to Deloitte's third edition State of the Media Democracy survey assessing the preferences of consumers aged 14 years to 75 years from Brazil, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States: 75

Percentage of Millennials who are regularly searching, downloading and listening to music over the Internet: 80

Percentage who are also regularly socializing online (via social networking sites, chat rooms or message boards): 73

Source: Deloitte LLP.

Even with slower hiring predicted for 2009, percentage of workers who say finding a new job is on their list of New Year's resolutions, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey: 19

Percentage who say they actually plan to leave their current job before the end of the year: 19

Percentage of workers who say the economy and the tightening job market are not making them hold off on their plans to change jobs: 60

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Percentage of financial advisers who are worried the industry's reputation has been tarnished by Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud, according to a poll from InvestmentNews: 69

Percentage of advisers who reached out to clients in December to reassure them that their assets were safe from similar schemes: 59.3

Source: InvestmentNews.

Average percentage of total revenues of S&P 500 companies that come from sources outside the U.S., according to the first Egon Zehnder International Global Board Index: 36.9

Percentage representation of foreign nationals on S&P 500 boards: 6.6

Percentage of board members who have no international work experience: 73

Despite the importance of current and projected international revenues, percentage of these companies that still have no foreign nationals serving on their boards: 56

Source: Egon Zehnder International.

Percentage of travelers who stay within the confines of their hotel until checkout, according to research by OnePoll on behalf of Samsung: 45

Percentage who do not even leave their room: 18

Source: OnePoll.

Percentage of American women who would be willing to give up highlights/lowlights to save money, according to the Sally Beauty Supply Best Tressed survey: 33

Percentage of women who say they would never give up professional trims, even in a sinking economy: 56

Source: Sally Beauty Company Inc.

Percentage of the U.S. adult population incarcerated or under community supervision at the end of 2007, according to the Office of Justice Programs' Bureau of Justice Statistics: 3.2 (or one in every 31 adults)

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Idle Thought

"Sooner or later, those who win are those that think they can." -- Richard Bach, author

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)