Percentage of employers who believe that academic institutions are not adequately preparing students for roles needed within their organizations, according to a CareerBuilder survey: 24

When asked where academic institutions fall short, percentage of employers who cited "too much emphasis on book learning instead of real-world learning": 47

Percentage who said they need workers with a blend of technical skills and those skills gained from liberal arts: 39

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Estimated number of the world's severely obese who live in high-income, English-speaking countries, according to a study published in The Lancet: 25

Number of obese adults who live in these countries: 118 million

Source: GMCR Wellness Collection.

Percentage of the time chief financial officers say they spend on work email that is wasted, according to a Robert Half survey: 17

Ranks of spam and overuse of the "cc" line on the list of culprits for this waste of time: 1, 2

Source: Robert Half.

Estimated sales in 2016 of U.S. meal kit delivery services -- whereby consumers order meals from picture menus, pre-measured fresh ingredients along with recipes are delievered to their doorstep and are prepared at home, according to Packaged Facts: $1.5 billion

Source: Packaged Facts.

Amount that can be saved by choosing the average used car instead of the average new car, according to research by Kelley Blue Book 2015: $13,500

After three years, percentage of the original price that your new car will be worth, according to Consumer Reports: 54

Because today's cars, trucks, SUVs and vans simply last longer, age of the average car on American roads (a record high): 11.5 years

Source: Kelley Blue Book.

Rank of New York City as the best city for a young person to launch a career, according to a 100-city report by Bankrate.com: 1

Ranks of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and San Jose, California, as the best cities for young people to launch a career: 2, 3, 4 and 5

Rank of Fayetteville, North Carolina, on the list of cities that offer the best opportunity for career advancement, job prospects and pay potential: 100

Source: Bankrate.com.

Ranks of data scientist (annual median salary $128,240), statistician ($79,990), information security analyst (88,890) and audiologist ($73,060) on the list of the best-ranked jobs, according to Careercast.com's annual Jobs Rated report: 1, 2, 3, 4,

Ranks of enlisted military ($27,936), disc jockey ($29,010), logger ($35,160) and broadcaster ($37,200) on the list of the worst-ranked jobs: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: Convergex.

Percentage of Americans who say they enjoy saving money more than spending it, according to a Gallup poll: 65

Percentage of respondents who say they are spending less, and that the change will become a new, normal pattern: 29

Source: Gallup Organization.

The average number of pounds of lettuce that Americans eat annually, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 25

Pounds of onions: 20

Pounds of bell peppers: 10

Pounds of carrots and cucumbers: 10.5

Pounds of tomatoes: 86

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

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.)

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.)

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.)