Percentage of hiring managers who say a lack of a cover letter will likely result in them not considering a candidate for their open position, according to data released by CareerBuilder: 33

Once they have read a candidate's cover letter, percentage of hiring managers who say they prefer to see a career summary at the top of a resume instead of an objective: 70

Percentage who think a resume should be two pages long: 57

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Percentage of U.S. singles who say they plan to watch the royal wedding on TV, according to the Zoosk Royal Wedding survey: 40

Percentage of British singles who plan to watch: 31

Percentage of U.S. singles who would rather have a root canal than watch the royal wedding: 39

Percentage who say family gatherings with the royal in-laws would be a snooze-fest: 66

Source: Zoosk.

Year that a landmark in the development of the way we use language (Noah Webster's "American Dictionary of the English Language") was published with the goal of simplifying spelling from British practice and including everyday words used by Americans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1828

Of the 70,000 words contained in Webster's first dictionary, number that had never been included in previous dictionaries, including words such as "skunk" and "squash": 12,000

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Equivalent number of miles per gallon that the Nissan Leaf, the first all-electric car for the masses, will deliver, according to the Environmental Protection Agency: 99

Number of miles delivered per charge: 73

Source: Kelley Blue Book.

Cost to consumers who financed a car through a dealership in 2009 in extra interest over the lives of their loans because of dealer interest rate markups, according to the report by the Center for Responsible Lending: $25.8 billion

Percentage increase in the odds that a subprime borrower will default: 12

Percentage increase in the odds that a borrower will end up having the car repossessed: 33

Source: Center for Responsible Learning.

Despite concerns about the impact of rising health care costs on their businesses and employees, percentage of employers who say they favor a federally tax-funded universal health care system, according to the 2011 United Benefit Advisors survey: 16.3

Percentage of top corporate decision makers who are concerned with the impact that health care costs are having or are going to have on their overall corporate costs: 99.4

Percentage of employers who still believe a good benefits program helps attract good employees: 96.9

Source: United Benefit Advisors.

Percentage of American adults who believe in redistributing wealth by heavy taxes on the rich, according to a Gallup Poll: 47

Percentage who disagree: 49

Source: Gallup.

Estimated number of Americans who live in food insecure households, including 17 million children, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture: 50 million, or 1 in 6

Estimated number of eggs that America's egg farmers donated this Easter season to food banks across the country: 11 million

Source: United Egg Producers.

Percentage of U.S. consumers who are receiving a tax refund who say they will use at least part of that money for leisure travel this year, according to Travel Leaders' nationwide consumer survey: 57.4

Ranks of Australia, Italy, Ireland, New Zealand and a Mediterranean cruise on the list Americans' "ultimate dream international destination": 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Source: Travel Leaders.

Percentage of brides who turn to their families for advice to get started in planning their wedding, according to Get Married: 64

Percentage of brides who said that having all your friends and family in attendance trumps everything when it comes to planning the perfect day: 86

Source: Getmarried.com.

Idle Thought

"Being truthful, as I discovered long ago as a journalist, is much more difficult than being accurate." -- Sandra Gwyn, journalist and author

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

Percentage of Americans who hold a favorable opinion about businessman, television personality and potential presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to a Gallup Poll: 43

Percentage who have an unfavorable opinion about him: 47

Source: Gallup.

Percentage of American adults who say they believe in love at first sight, according to Adam and Eve's Great American Sex Survey: 55

Of those respondents, percentage who admitted they've experienced it themselves: 71

Source: Adam and Eve.

Percentage of U.S. working adults who believe they are paid fairly, according to an Ipsos Public Affairs survey conducted on behalf of Kenexa: 60

Percentage who feel they are underpaid: 37

Percentage who report that they are overpaid: 2

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Estimated percentage of U.S. households that take part in lawn and garden activities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 75

Percentage who grow flowers: 33

Percentage who have vegetable gardens: 25

Percentage who enjoy a garden pond: 10

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of federal managers who say they were unaware of their agency's plans for implementing a shutdown of operations if funding for federal agencies were to run out, according to the Government Business Council: 56

Percentage of respondents who said they did not know if they would have to report to work during a shutdown: 51

Percentage of respondents who rate morale in their agency as "low" or "very low": 48

Source: Government Business Council.

Percentage of Americans 21 years of age and older who say they drink alcohol at least once a week, including 5 percent who drink daily and 10 percent who drink several times a week, according to the results of a Harris Poll: 29

Percentage who say they drink alcohol at least once a month: 20

Percentage who say they never drink alcohol: 22

Source: Harris Interactive.

Percentage of IT security professionals who reported that security breaches, such as those from WikiLeaks, made them reconsider their company's data security policies, according to a survey by Imperva: 82

Percentage of respondents who said that they knew the exact number of sensitive files they had: 18

Source: Imperva.

Percentage of respondents who have purchased soap who say their decision is based mainly on scent, according to a Mintel poll: 38

Percentage who say they prefer shower products with extra moisturizers: 35

Percentage who claim that finding soap or body wash products on sale or the cheapest is important/very important to them: 60

Source: Mintel.

Percentage of U.S. households that crafted at least once during 2010, according to a Craft and Hobby Association study: 56

Value of the U.S. craft and hobby industry: $29.2 billion

Source: Craft and Hobby Association.

Percentage of car owners who use online repair cost estimates who report saving money on repair bills, according to AutoMD.com: 73

Percentage of car owners who usually go to the repair shop who are now more likely to perform their own repairs: 31.3

Source: AutoMD.com.

Idle Thought

"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?" -- George Eliot

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

Despite a historic real-estate market upheaval that sent foreclosure rates skyrocketing and home values plummeting, percentage of homeowners who say they would buy their homes again, according to poll results announced by The Allstate Corp. and National Journal: 90

Percentage of Americans who say they would advise a friend or family member to buy a home as a long-term asset: 70

Source: The Allstate Corp.

In the U.K., estimated amount of money that women save annually by flirting with shop staff until they get a discount, according to a survey commissioned by the website promocodes.co.uk: $245

Ranks of cars, holidays, TVs, houses and clothes on the list of items that people most flirted or haggled for a discount on: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Including vouchers, haggling and flirting, amount of money that Brits say they are saving annually: $941

Source: Promocodes.co.uk.

On average, percentage of their time that managers claim to spend intervening in employee disputes and handling personality conflicts, according to an Accountemps survey: 18

Number of hours a week this represents: 7

Number of 40-hour weeks per year this represents: 9

Source: Accountemps.

Percentage of parents who feel they should have primary responsibility for teaching their kids the basics of personal finance, according to a survey by T. Rowe Price: 86

Percentage of parents who say they are very prepared to discuss basic financial principles such as setting goals, the importance of saving, smart spending, inflation, and diversification with their children: 28

Source: T. Rowe Price.

Projected number of hot dogs that major league ballparks around the country will serve this season, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council's 2011 annual report: 22,435,400

If laid end-to-end, that number of hot dogs would stretch from AT&T Park in San Francisco to Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, but the real question is: How many times it would round the bases: 31,160

Ranks of Dodger Stadium, Yankee Stadium and Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park on the list forecast as the top hot dog consuming MLB venues in 2011: 1, 2, 3

Source: National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.

Number of single people in the United States -- one-third of the population, according to Match.com: 150 million

Though women still expect men to make the first move and ask a lady out, percentage who would offer to pick up the check on a first date: 41

Percentage of women who prefer men to make the follow-up call after the first date: 48

Source: Match.com.

Percentage of American adults who are stressed by at least one thing at work, according to a survey conducted on behalf of Everest College: 77

Overall, percentage of adults who ranked low pay as the most stressful aspect of their jobs: 14

Percentage who cited commuting: 11

Percentage who say an unreasonable workload: 9

Source: Everest College.

Estimated number of feet of underground utilities in the United States, according to the Common Ground Alliance: 100 billion

Percentage of Americans planning to dig this year who will put their community's safety at risk by not calling 811 to learn the approximate location of underground utilities: 49

Frequency that an underground utility line is damaged by digging: Every three minutes

Source: Common Ground Alliance.

Percentage of consumers who reported that they worry that the organization they are sharing their personal information with could suffer a data breach, according to the results of the annual tax and identity theft survey by PrivacyGuard: 64

When a data breach occurs, percentage of respondents who are more likely to blame the institution that was breached: 44

Percentage who are more likely to blame the thieves that stole the data: 35

Source: PrivacyGuard.

Despite concerns about a possible nuclear disaster in the U.S., percentage of Americans who think nuclear power plants in the U.S. are safe, according to a Gallup Poll: 58

Percentage who say they are not: 36

Source: Gallup.

Idle Thought

"Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids." -- John Steinbeck

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