oddities

Figuratively Speaking for May 06, 2016

Figuratively Speaking by by John MacIntyre
by John MacIntyre
Figuratively Speaking | May 6th, 2016

Date that Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone, which didn't ship to consumers until June of that same year, according to Convergex: January 2007

Date that Facebook opened to the general population: September 2006

Date that the full version of Twitter launched: July 2006

Year that the picture-sharing site Instagram launched: 2010

Date that "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" debuted: October 2007

Year that Uber received its seed funding: 2009

Date that Apple started taking pre-orders on the first-generation iPad: March 2010

Source: Convergex.

Median age of men at first marriage in 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 29.2

Median age of women: 27.1

Median age of men at first marriage in 1967: 23.1

Median age of women: 20.6

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

According to CareerBuilder's annual social media recruitment survey, percentage of employers who use social networking sites to research job candidates: 60

Percentage of employers currently using social networking sites to research job candidates, who say they are "looking for information that supports their qualifications for the job": 60

Percentage of these hiring managers who want to see if the candidate has a professional online persona: 53

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Ranks of Stanford and Harvard as the college named by both applicants and parents as their dream college, according to the Princeton Review's 2016 College Hopes and Worries Survey: 1, 2

Source: Princeton Review.

Percentage of chief financial officers who said their greatest challenge when working with those in other departments is conveying financial information in nonfinancial terms, according to a Robert Half Finance and Accounting survey: 19

Percentage who cited "learning to act with a variety of personalities" as their greatest challenge: 39

Percentage who said "prioritizing conflicting deadlines throughout the enterprise": 19

Source: Robert Half Finance and Accounting.

According to Credit Suisse, percentage of the world's population who have now accumulated more wealth than the rest of the world put together: 1

In 2015, number of individuals who had the same wealth as 3.6 billion people -- the bottom half of humanity, according to Oxfam calculations: 62

Source: Oxfam.

Ranks of Holland, Michigan; North Chicago, Illinois; Brighton, New York; Jefferson City, Missouri; and La Vergne, Tennessee, on the list of the most business-friendly small markets in which to launch a new venture, according to research by WalletHub: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Number of startups per 100,000 residents in Miami Beach, Florida, the highest rate in the United States: 246

Number per 100,000 in Salisbury, Maryland, the city with the lowest rate: 35

Source: WalletHub.

Percentage of employees who said they would prefer to have Pam Halpert from "The Office" working at their company as an administrative assistant, according to a recent survey by OfficeTeam: 29

Percentage who said they would prefer Waylon Smithers from "The Simpsons": 17

Percentage who would prefer to work with Joan Holloway from "Mad Men": 14

Percentage who would prefer Donna Meagle from "Parks and Recreation": 11

Percentage who would prefer Jonathan from "30 Rock": 9

Source: OfficeTeam.

Percentage of online dating users who agree that online dating keeps people from settling down because they always have options for people to date, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center: 31

Percentage who agree with the statement "people who use online dating sites are desperate": 16

Source: Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends.

Percentage of adults who say most police officers have a positive impact on the communities where they work, according to the results of a Harris Poll: 88

Percentage of the general adult population who feel the police in their community are excellent/pretty good at being helpful and friendly: 68

Percentage of respondents who say the police are effective in preventing crime: 58

When asked about treatment of specific race groups, percentage of Americans who say the police in their community treat all races fairly: 49

Source: The Harris Poll.

Idle thought

"Kindness is always fashionable." -- Amelia Barr, novelist

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

oddities

Figuratively Speaking for April 29, 2016

Figuratively Speaking by by John MacIntyre
by John MacIntyre
Figuratively Speaking | April 29th, 2016

In 2016, percentage of adults who receive paid vacation as part of their job benefits, according to research from Alamo Rent A Car: 56

Percentage of respondents receiving paid vacation who leave some of these days on the table: 41

Of those who reported having unused paid vacation days, percentage who said they left five or more vacation days unused in 2015: 40

Source: Alamo Rent A Car.

Percentage of adult Americans who drink alcohol at least a few times a year who say they have alcohol when celebrating a special occasion, according to a Harris Poll: 86

Percentage who say they imbibe when they have a really bad day: 60

Percentage who say they drink when they're stressed: 52

Source: The Harris Poll.

Percentage of chief financial officers who said new hires have one to less than three months to prove themselves, according to a Robert Half Finance & Accounting survey: 54

Percentage who expect employees to make their mark in less than a month: 9

Percentage who said three months to less than six months months: 25

Source: Robert Half Finance & Accounting.

Percentage of Americans who say they believe swearing is more commonplace today than 20 years ago, and report hearing profanity in public frequently or occasionally, according to an Ipsos poll: 75 plus

Percentage who admitted to swearing at least once a day: 33

When it comes to the "F-word," percentage of Americans who use this word on a daily basis: 25

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Increase in the average cost of a wedding in the past five years, with couples spending an average of $32,641 in 2015, according to the results of a The Knot survey: $5,500

Ranks of reception venue ($1,950 increase), ceremony site ($652) and reception band ($545) on the list of categories most responsible for driving up the cost: 1, 2, 3

Average spent to tie the knot in Manhattan, the most expensive place to get married: $82,299

Average spent to tie the knot in Alaska, the least expensive place to get married: $17,361

Source: The Knot.

Percentage of North American employees who say they have the right tools and technology they need to be more productive, according to Mercer's 2016 Global Talent Trends Study: 73

Percentage of North American employees who say they have creative training available: 69

Source: Mercer.

Number of people killed by terrorism in 2014, compared to 18,111 in 2013, the largest increase ever recorded, according to the third edition of the Global Terrorism Index: 32,658

Percentage of all global terrorism fatalities in 2014 for which Boko Haram and ISIL were jointly responsible: 51

Percentage of all deaths that occurred in just five countries -- Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria: 78

Global economic cost of terrorism in 2015, an all-time high: $52.9 billion

Source: Institute for Economics & Peace.

Percentage of women losing sleep over money problems, according to a recent CreditCards.com report: 68

Percentage of men losing sleep over money problems: 56

Percentage of adults losing sleep worrying about saving enough money for retirement: 39

Source: creditcards.com.

Estimated number of hours that administrative assistants save their managers a day, according to a survey by OfficeTeam: 3

Source: Robert Half.

If money were no object, percentage of respondents to a Mother's Day CreditDonkey.com survey who said they would send Mom on vacation: 56

Percentage who would buy her a new house: 27

Percentage who would buy her a car: 13

Alas, for all the mothers out there, the average amount of money respondents plan to spend this Mother's Day: $61.56

Source: CreditDonkey.com.

Idle Thought

"Conformity may give you a quiet life; it may even bring you to a University Chair. But all change in history, all advance, comes from the nonconformists. If there had been no troublemakers, no dissenters, we should still be living in caves." -- A.J.P. Taylor, historian

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

oddities

Figuratively Speaking for April 22, 2016

Figuratively Speaking by by John MacIntyre
by John MacIntyre
Figuratively Speaking | April 22nd, 2016

Percentage of American adults who received no instruction on investing -- not from their parents, their school or from anyone else -- according to a survey from RBC Wealth Management-U.S. and City National Bank: 35

Percentage who said they simply taught themselves: 39

Percentage of Americans of all ages who say that financial literacy should be taught in schools: 87

Source: RBC Financial.

Number of shell companies that were set up by a single law firm, Mossack Fonseca, according to an article by Deborah Hardoon, Oxfam's deputy head of research: 200,000 plus

At the peak of its activity in 2005, number of companies that Mossack Fonseca incorporated -- one company every 10 minutes: 13,000

Number of banks, law firms, company incorporators and other middlemen -- almost 2,000 from the United Kingdom, 1,200 from Switzerland and more than 400 in Brazil -- that the "Panama Papers" show that Mossack Fonseca worked with: 14,000 plus

Source: Oxfam.

Percentage of workers who would consider relocating for a job, according to a Robert Half Relocation Survey: 67

Percentage who believe a move would improve their career prospects: 37

Ranks of a higher salary, a lower cost of living, career growth prospects with the new company/city, and being closer to family and friends on the list of the most important factors in deciding to relocate for a job: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: Robert Half.

Cost of a gallon of regular gas in 1967, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 33 cents ($2.13 in 2015 dollars)

Cost of a gallon of regular gas in 2016: $1.86

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Total debt as a percentage of median income in Hawaii, two times higher than in Mississippi, the state with the lowest, according to WalletHub research: 286.51 percent

Foreclosure rate in New Jersey, 14 times higher than in Alaska, the state with the lowest, 0.30 percent: 4.30 percent

Housing expenses as a percentage of median home price in Michigan, three times higher than in Hawaii, the state with the lowest, 1.76 percent: 5.02 percent

Percentage of the population spending more than they make in Hawaii and Nevada, two times higher than in Maryland, the state with the lowest at 14 percent: 23

Source: WalletHub.

Percentage of U.S. consumers who now binge watch an average of five television series episodes at a time, according to Deloitte's 10th Digital Democracy survey: 70

Percentage who binge on a weekly basis: 31

Source: The Harris Poll.

Average cost of tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities today, according to research by Convergex: $9,410

Average cost of tuition and fees if attending a private, nonprofit four-year college or university: $32,405

Source: Convergex.

Percentage of business travelers who generally feel positive about traveling, according to findings released from Booking.com: 39

Among international business travelers, percentage who feel stressed at some point on their journey due to the logistics of their travels: 93

Ranks of missing a flight/train, language barriers and the possibility that luggage will be lost on the list of the top causes of anxiety for American business travelers: 1, 2, 3

Source: Booking.com.

Percentage of people who say they clean their homes every day, according to the Nielsen Global Home-Care survey: 31

Percentage of people who say they do laundry every day: 31

Percentage who say women do the majority of cleaning: 44

Percentage who say housecleaning is a shared responsibility between women and men: 28

Source: Nielsen Online.

Percentage of employers who say they plan to hire recent college graduates this year, up from 65 percent last year and the highest outlook since 2007, according to a CareerBuilder survey: 67

Percentage who plan to offer recent college graduates higher pay than last year: 37

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Idle Thought

"The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty and truth." -- Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

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

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