Percentage of executives who said they consider their assistant's opinion important when evaluating potential new hires, according to a survey developed by OfficeTeam: 61

Percentage who said it was very important: 21

Source: OfficeTeam.

Percentage of Americans who view big government as the most serious threat to the country in the future, according to a Gallup Poll: 55

Percentage who see big business as the greatest threat: 32

Source: Gallup.

Percentage of parents who have made budgeting a new topic of conversation for the entire family, according to a study from CoolSavings.com: 33

Percentage who feel budgeting is not a conversation for kids: 8

Percentage who see it in a different light -- as an important life lesson: 78

Source: Q Interactive.

Average salary for an executive chef in 2008, according to StarChefs.com: $77,611

Average salary in 2009: $74,869

Percentage more that male executive chefs make than female executive chefs: 18

Source: StarChefs.com.

Percentage growth over 2007 in U.S. sales of organic products, both food and non-food, according to results from the Organic Trade Association's "2009 Organic Industry Survey": 17.1

Percentage of all food products in the U.S. that are organic: 3.5

Source: Organic Trade Association.

Percentage of women who think they look younger than their actual age, according to a survey conducted by American Laser Centers: 58

Percentage of men who think they look younger than their actual age: 48

Percentage of women who said they would like to look younger than their actual age: 64

Percentage of men who said they would like to look younger: 51

Source: American Laser Services.

Estimated number of malware-infected computers (including corporate, government and consumer computers around the world) in a network discovered by Finjan's Malicious Code Research Center: 1.9 million

Number of government-owned domains (.gov) from the U.S., the United Kingdom and various other countries where computers were found to be compromised: 77

Number of people in the cybergang who control the Ukraine-based cybercrime server -- in use since February 2009 -- that's responsible for the malware: 6

Source: Finjan's Malicious Code Research Center.

Percentage of hourly hiring managers with responsibility to recruit summer employees who say the biggest competition for students trying to get an entry-level job this summer will come from other students: 54

Percentage who say this competition will come from workers who have recently entered the workforce because of economic pressures, up nine points from last year: 29

Average expected hourly pay for these workers (up 40 cents from the average amount reported in last year's survey): $10.20

Source: Ipsos Reid Public Affairs.

Percentage of the nation's home medical equipment and service providers that have formal plans to respond to a pandemic flu, according to a survey conducted by the American Association for Homecare: 53

Percentage that have stockpiled N95 masks or other supplies related to a flu pandemic: 23

Percentage that said they are working on a formal plan and expect to have one in place: 18

Source: American Association for Homecare.

Although the downturn in the economy has proven tough for workers, percentage of those still employed who say they're gaining more from the experience than just managing to keep their jobs, and cite at least one positive effect the recession has had for them, according to a survey by Accountemps: 77

Percentage who cite the ability to tackle new projects: 53

Percentage who have assumed additional responsibility: 52

Percentage who have taken on more challenging work: 52

Source: Accountemps.

Idle Thought

"The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind." -- Charles Darwin, naturalist and author

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

Projected percentage drop in Mother's Day sales this year, according to industry research firm IBISWorld: 14.7

Amount this represents: $12.9 billion

Source: IBISWorld.

Annual cost to the U.S. economy in lower productivity and throttled innovation -- in organizations of all shapes and sizes caused by information overload -- according to Basex: $900 billion

Source: Basex Inc.

If you address e-mail to an executive, percentage chance that your message will be intercepted by an administrative professional who may be charged with screening, deleting and ghostwriting the boss's e-mail, according to a survey by the International Association of Administrative Professionals and The ePolicy Institute: 59

Percentage of administrative professionals who now ghostwrite responses under their executives' names: 59

Source: International Association of Administrative Professionals.

Percentage of Americans who say lower-income people are paying their "fair share" of federal taxes, up from 32 percent last year, according to a Gallup Poll: 41

Percentage of Americans who say that middle-income people pay their fair share of taxes, as they have in six of the last seven years: 50

Percentage who say upper-income taxpayers pay their fair share: 23

Source: Gallup.

Percentage of Americans who do not know the current average interest rate on a credit card, according to TrueCredit.com Financial Literacy Quiz: 84

Percentage of consumers who revealed that they are not aware of exactly what information is included in their credit report, and mistakenly believe that a credit score is included in the report: 90

Source: TrueCredit.com.

Percentage of grooms who do the proposing, according to about.com: 99

Percentage of proposals that occur in December: 15

Average length of an American engagement: 14 months

Average amount spent on a traditional American wedding: $28,082

Source: about.com.

Number of gallons of gasoline saved each year by using public transit, according to PublicTransportation.org: 1.4 billion

Estimated number of gallons of gasoline saved per day: 4 million

On average, percentage less oil consumed by a public transit rider as opposed to an automobile rider: 50

Source: Kidd Transportation Group.

Percentage of women who said they feel forced to make some tough choices and give up the small things that make them happy when money is tight, according to a survey conducted on behalf of Degree Women Fine Fragrance Collection: 63

Percentage who said they would find it hard to give up chocolate: 40

Percentage who would give up their sweet treats to be able to afford their favorite beauty products: 56

Source: Unilever.

Year that the people in Paris, Tenn., inaugurated their town's annual claim to fame as host of the world's biggest fish fry (where 100,000 people consume about 10,000 pounds of catfish, along with several tons of hush puppies, and attend a carnival, a rodeo, parades and even catfish races), according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1953

Estimated number of farm-raised catfish produced each year: 550 million

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of U.S. farm subsidies that go to large farming businesses, according to a WorldPublicOpinion.org poll: 80

Percentage of Americans who favor such subsidies: 36

Percentage who oppose them: 61

Source: WorldPublicOpinion.org.

Idle Thought

"It is not how old you are, but how you are old." -- Jules Renard, writer

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

Percentage of Americans who now consider owning a car is a necessity, according to a Pew Research survey: 91

Percentage who say a clothes washer is a necessity: 90

Ranks of a clothes dryer (83 percent), home air conditioning (70 percent), microwave (68 percent) and TV set (64 percent) on the list of amenities that Americans consider as necessary: 3, 4, 5, 6

Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Percentage of professionals who say they very or somewhat frequently go to work when they feel sick, according to a survey developed by OfficeTeam: 75

When executives were asked how often they think employees come to work when they feel sick, percentage who said very frequently: 17

Source: OfficeTeam.

Estimated number of mothers in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 82.5 million

Percentage of American consumers who take part in some way in Mother's Day, according to Hallmark: 96

Rank of Mother's Day as the peak day of the year for long-distance telephone calls: 1

Source: about.com.

Percentage of doctors in the U.S. who would choose a different profession if they could start over today, according to the National Physicians' Study conducted by HCD Research: 30

Ranks of negotiated rates and malpractice suits on the list of the reasons cited by doctors for wanting to switch professions: 1, 2

Source: HCD Research Inc.

Percentage of college students who left school with more than $5,000 in credit card debt, according to a survey commissioned by TrueCredit.com: 24

Percentage of respondents who indicated they owed more than $10,000 for purchases made with credit cards: 10

Source: TrueCredit.com.

Number of businesses in the U.S. that consist of only the owner with no additional employees, according to a study by FindLaw.com: 20 million

Source: FindLaw.com.

Percentage of Americans who may be missing out on credits and deductions due to their lack of familiarity with the tax system and tax law changes, according to a new study conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of H&R Block: 50

Percentage of those with college degrees who wrongly think it is possible to claim deductions or credits that were missed on previous tax returns: 45

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Number of households that represent the wealthiest 10 percent of all U.S. households, as determined by the Federal Reserve Board, according to a study by the American Affluence Research Center: 11.2 million

Percentage of luxury consumers who report they have reduced overall expenditures during the past 12 months and/or will do so during the next 12 months: 81

Percentage decline in home remodeling plans from what they were one year ago: 50

Source: American Affluence Research Center.

Percentage of Americans who view plunging housing prices combined with historically low interest rates who believe that now is a "good time" to buy a house — up 18 percentage points from a year ago and the highest level of housing-purchase optimism in four years, according to a Gallup Poll: 71

Percentage drop in housing prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas in January 2009 compared to a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index: 19

Source: Gallup.

Despite it being one of the most challenging hiring environments in the nation's history, percentage of workers laid off from full-time jobs in the last three months who reported they found a new full-time, permanent position, according to a survey from CareerBuilder: 41

Percentage who found part-time work: 8

Of those workers who were laid off in the last 12 months, percentage who received a severance package from their employers: 32

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Idle Thought

"A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule." -- Michael Pollan, author

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