oddities

Figuratively Speaking for May 13, 2016

Figuratively Speaking by by John MacIntyre
by John MacIntyre
Figuratively Speaking | May 13th, 2016

Estimated revenue from individual income taxes in 2016, according to WalletHub's Tax Day 2016 by the Numbers report: $1.62 trillion

Percentage of all federal revenue that is brought in by the IRS: 92

Percentage decrease in IRS enforcement staff since 2010: 23

Source: WalletHub.

Percentage of college-educated workers who believe that their preparedness for future job positions can be attributed to workplace learning: 72

In companies where employee learning was clearly valued, percentage of respondents who were satisfied with their companies' training methods: 80

Source: Instructure.

Value of the global wellness industry (3.4 times larger than the worldwide pharmaceutical industry), according to the Global Wellness Institute: $3.4 trillion

Value of the beauty and anti-aging sector: $1.026 trillion

Value of the healthy eating/nutrition/weight loss sector: $574 billion

Source: GMCR Wellness Collection.

Amount of money the U.S. Treasury recently spent to upgrade the security of the $100 bill against counterfeiters (North Korea, apparently, was making excellent fakes), according to research by Convergex: $120 million

Value of China's largest banknote: 100 Yuan Renminbi

Approximate U.S. value of this banknote: $15

Source: Convergex.

Value of Bermuda's annual gross domestic product, according to a Citizens for Tax Justice report: $6 billion

Profits that U.S. corporations say they earn in Bermuda: $104 billion

Annual gross domestic product in the Cayman Islands: $3 billion

Profits of U.S.-controlled subsidiaries in the Caymans: $46 billion

Source: Citizens for Tax Justice.

Percentage of chief financial officers who say informational interviews, in which the interviewee is expected to pose most of the questions, are becoming more common now than 10 years ago, according to a survey by Accountemps: 36

Percentage of CFOs who say they receive informational interview requests at least once a month: 31

Percentage of CFOs who said when someone impresses them in a meeting, it's likely they will alert that person to job openings at the company: 84

Source: Accountemps.

Percentage of Americans who say they are paying too much in taxes -- a 6 percentage-point increase from last year and the highest percentage in 15 years, according to a Gallup poll: 57

Percentage who say their taxes are unfair -- the highest percentage since 1999: 47

Source: Gallup Organization.

Percentage of workers who say debt is not a problem for them in 2016 (down 5 percentage points since last year), according to the Retirement Confidence Survey from EBRI: 44

Percentage of retirees who report that they do not have a problem with debt (unchanged from last year): 67

Source: EBRI.

Percentage of boys who accounted for the total number of lawnmower-related injuries, according to a study from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons: 81

Percentage of injuries involving a ride-on mower: 55

Percentage of injured children requiring an amputation as a result of their injuries: 53

Percentage of injuries that occur between April and September: 91

Source: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Percentage of vacationers who have never rented a vacation home who would consider doing so, according to a survey by Wyndham Vacation Rentals: 89

Percentage of vacationers who are not confident that they'll get what they anticipate when renting directly from an owner: 46

Percentage of all vacationers who worry about not being able to get problems solved quickly: 62

Source: Wyndham Vacation Rentals.

Idle Thought

"The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play." -- Arnold J. Toynbee, historian

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

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.)

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