Percentage of all workers who expect to retire at under 60 years of age, according to the EBRI 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey: 9

Percentage who expect to retire between the ages of 60 and 64: 19

Percentage who expect to retire at age 65: 24

Percentage who say they will be 66 or older when they retire: 33

Source: EBRI.

Percentage of Americans who say they have owned a recalled consumer product, according to a survey by FindLaw.com: 47

Number of consumer products that were voluntarily recalled by their manufacturers in 2009, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC): 465

Number of deaths that consumer products -- both recalled and unrecalled -- are involved in each year, according to the CPSC: 8,000

Estimated number of injuries that involve consumer products each year: 14 million

Source: FindLaw.com.

Percentage of consumers who own an e-reader, or electronic reading device, according to a survey from Pricegrabber.com: 5

Percentage who plan to purchase an e-reader in the next 12 months: 33

Source: PriceGrabber.com.

Percentage more women than men who perform elder care duties, according to the book "The Daughter Trap: Taking Care of Mom and Dad ... and You" by author Laurel Kennedy: 50

Percentage of the demanding Level 5 caregiving tasks, including more that 40 hours of care per week, that fall to women: 70

In their lifetime, average number of years women will lose to caregiving: 11.5

Average number of years men will lose: 1.3

Source: "The Daughter Trap."

Year in which one of the world's greatest libraries, the Library of Congress, was founded, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1800

Number of public libraries there are in the U.S.: 16,600

Total number of people who staff these libraries: 145,000

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Ranks of public speaking and the annual ritual of spring cleaning on the list of activities most dreaded by Americans, according to a survey by LG Electronics USA Inc.: 1, 2

Percentage of those polled who wished there were options to make household cleaning easier: 84

Percentage of Americans who admit they tend to take short cuts in cleaning: 60

Percentage who admit they typically clean only what can be seen because it is too difficult to get to the hard-to-reach places: 54

Source: LG Electronics USA Inc.

Percentage of respondents who say that by clearly defining roles and responsibilities they can better eliminate potential conflicts, according to a study titled What Every Entrepreneur Should Know Before Starting a Business With a Family Member, commissioned by MassMutual: 56

Percentage who say that key business decisions are usually discussed between at least two people before a decision is made: 73

Percentage who said their decision-making process is effective: 68

Source: Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.

Percentage of Americans who get stressed out about filing their tax return, according to a Zogby survey: 56

Percentage who expect a refund or have already received one: 60

Percentage who expect to seek an extension: 7

Source: Zogby International.

Number of smart phones shipped worldwide in 2009, according to Park Associates: 180 million

Percentage of the market that is shared by Nokia, Research in Motion and Apple: 60

Source: Parks Associates.

Percentage of all Americans who have hearing loss, according to the National Institutes of Health: 10

Percentage of people with hearing loss who can benefit from hearing aids: 95

Percentage of the 36 million Americans living with hearing loss who do not have hearing aids: 75

Source: HearUSA.

Idle Thought

"If people are good only because they fear punishment and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." -- Albert Einstein, physicist

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

Amount spent annually by U.S. marketers targeting children, up from $100 million in 1983: $17 billion

Average number of hours per week that U.S. children now spend in front of television screens, more hours than in any other activity besides sleeping: 40

Percentage of U.S. babies under the age of 1 who have a television in their bedroom: 19

Source: WorldWatch Institute.

Year that Arthur Mosher Butts, an unemployed architect who developed the board game Scrabble to pass the time with his friends during the Great Depression, was born: 1899

When the game was marketed by Macy's, amount of royalty per game that Butts received: 3 cents

Estimated number of sets that have been sold worldwide: 150 million

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Amount that the average woman spends per year on haircuts, according to ShopSmart Consumer Reports: $195

Estimated amount she spends on color alone: $260

Percentage of women who are trying to save money by going to the salon less often: 33

Percentage of women who have had a mood affected by a bad hair day: 44

Source: Consumer Reports.

Percentage of Americans who see the growth in reality television shows as a change for the better, according to Pew Research: 8

Percentage who say the shows have been a change for the worse: 63

Source: Pew Internet and American Life.

Percentage of Americans who said their financial professional has not broached the topic of how to fund potential long-term-care costs, according to a survey sponsored by Genworth Financial companies: 91

Percentage of Americans who say that fear of upsetting family members is the biggest barrier to talking about long-term-care plans: 65

Percentage who say becoming a family burden is their biggest concern: 55

Source: Genworth Financial.

Percentage salary premium that professionals with "cyber" on their resume can command as both the public and private sectors are becoming more aggressive in building their security-talent pipeline, according to the Dice Report: 20

As of April 1, 2010, the number of available tech jobs: 62,067

Source: Dice.

Average American mainstream videogame industry salary in 2009, a decline of more than 4 percent from 2008's figure of $79,000, according to Game Developer Research, the analysis arm of leading videogame industry publications Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra: $75,573

Source: fortyseven communications.

Percentage of women 50 years of age and older who singled out Meryl Streep as the celebrity who best personifies "50-plus Fabulous," according to a survey sponsored by Vichy Laboratories: 46

Percentage of women over 50 who reported that they experienced changes in the appearance of their skin, including increased dryness, increased wrinkles and a sagging neck once they entered menopause: 82

Source: Vichy.

Percentage of Americans who are seriously concerned about identity theft, according to the results of the Unisys Security Index: 64

Percentage who are also seriously concerned about credit and debit card fraud: 62

Percentage of Americans who are seriously concerned about the security of online transactions -- the highest level since the Unisys Security Index began three years ago: 43

Source: Unisys.

Percentage of chief information officers who have implemented stricter social networking policies, according to a survey developed by Robert Half Technology: 38

Percentage of technology executives who are reining in personal use of social media: 23

According to a previous study, percentage of companies that have social networking policies that ban the use of social networking altogether: 55

Source: Robert Half Technology.

Idle Thought

"We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin." -- Andre Berthiaume, novelist

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

Percentage of Americans who believe that more than half of every tax dollar is wasted, according to a Gallup Poll: 35

Percentage who said a number between 26 and 50 cents: 33

Source: Gallup.

Number of times more per month that men who shave regularly (five times a week or more) enjoy sex than do infrequent shavers, according to the Schick Skin-dex survey, a national research poll conducted by StrategyOne: 2

On average, amount they earn more per year than infrequent shavers, also making them more likely to own luxury items: $15,100

Source: Schick Skin-dex.

Percentage of highly engaged respondents (895 technology stakeholders and critics) who agreed with the statement that "by 2020, innovative forms of online cooperation will result in significantly more efficient and responsive governments, business, non-profits and other mainstream institutions," according to a survey fielded by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project and Elon University's Imagining the Internet Center: 72

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Percentage of U.S. adults who say they or a family member has lost a job in the past year, according to the results of a survey by Zogby: 27

Percentage of the unemployed who have been out of work for more than a year: 59

Source: Zogby International.

Percentage of retailers (realizing that the relationship between retail employees and customers is high on the list of critical success factors for the industry) who rank leadership development as critical to their organizations' success, according to the Deloitte/National Retail Federation Survey: 83

Percentage of retailers who said they do not have the HR technology (e.g., candidate identification, learning and training systems) to support talent management within their organizations: 41

Source: Deloitte LLP.

Percentage of workers who think there is "just the right amount" of tension in their place of work, according to a survey by Healthy Companies International: 41

Percentage who said there's too much tension in their workplace: 25

Source: Healthy Companies International.

Percentage of total compensation for CEOs that is made up by equity compensation, according to a study of 76 early tax filers with revenues greater than $10 billion by Steven Hall and Partners: 56

Percentage that are bonuses and other cash-based incentives: 24

Percentage that is base salary: 20

Source: Steven Hall and Partners.

Rank of "employees not getting raises" on the list of the most difficult aspects of the current recession, according to a survey from the International Association of Administrative Professionals: 1

Of those surveyed, percentage of workers who said they haven't gotten a raise: 27

Source: International Association of Administrative Professionals.

Percentage of financial advisers who say their clients are not concerned with covering basic needs in retirement, but rather with having to give up luxuries such as traveling and dining out -- and that this concern is a driving motivation behind working longer, according to a survey released by MainStay Investments: 61

Percentage of advisers who also cited loss of assets in late 2008 and early 2009 as a reason clients are postponing retirement: 46

Source: MainStay Investments.

Number of job seekers for every available position in March, down from 6 candidates per opportunity the previous month, according to the U.S. Department of Labor: 5.4

Source: ClearRock.

Idle Thought

"No man is a hero to his valet." -- Madame Cornuel, society hostess

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