Figuratively Speaking

Percentage of holiday consumers who say they plan to spend the same amount of money on gifts this season as compared to last year, according to a TD Bank poll: 51

Average gift spending projected for the majority of consumers: $670

Percentage of holiday shoppers who say they haven't saved at all for the holidays: 68

Source: TD Bank.

When presented with an age-progressed image of their actual future selves, percentage of working-age adults who were willing to allocate approximately 33 percent more of their paychecks to their retirement accounts versus those participants who did not view an image of themselves, according to research published in the American Marketing Association's Journal of Marketing Research: 50

Source: Journal of Marketing Research.

Percentage of CEOs and other company leaders who said they wear business casual attire to the office, according to a CareerBuilder survey on Emulating the Big Cheese: 63

Percentage who said jeans or shorts is typical workplace wear: 18

Percentage who wear a business suit: 14

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Percentage of U.S. working adults who will be checking their work email over the holiday season, according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive: 59

Of the 59 percent who check their email, percentage who said they will check their work inbox at least once a day: 55

Percentage who will look at their work email multiple times throughout the day: 28

Source: Harris Interactive.

Percentage of workers who said being courteous to others can help an employee rise through the ranks, according to a Robert Half survey: 48

Percentage who said etiquette plays at least some role in career advancement, but skills play a bigger role: 41

Source: Robert Half Management Resources.

Ranks of New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Houston and Nashville on the list of markets for country album sales, according to Nielsen: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

In the first 10 months of this year, number of physical and digital country albums that have been sold nationwide: 31.8 million

Year to date, percentage of album sales in the U.S. accounted for by country music: 13

Source: Nielsen Media Research.

Average age at which men today begin to use cologne, according to the results of research by Debenhams: 14

Percentage of sexagenarians -- and their older brothers -- who claimed that they only began wearing aftershave at the age of 30: 77

Source: Debenhams.

Percentage of U.S. adults who had planned to shop in stores or online on Black Friday, according to a survey conducted on behalf of CouponCabin.com: 35

Percentage of shoppers who said Black Friday shopping trips are old hat and it was not their first time participating: 84

Percentage who said that it's a tradition for their family and friends: 27

Source: CouponCabin.

Percentage of workers in the U.S. who are seriously considering leaving their organization, up 9 points from 23 percent in 2005, according to global analysis of Mercer's "What's Working" survey: 32

Ranks of being treated with respect, work/life balance, type of work, quality of co-workers and quality of leadership on the list of non-financial factors that play a prominent role in influencing motivation and engagement in workers worldwide: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Rank of base pay: 6

Source: Mercer.

Percentage of publishers who say they have a well-developed plan for the mobile market, up from just 28 percent in 2009, according to a survey from the Audit Bureau of Circulations: 59

Percentage of respondents who said they currently have mobile content for smartphones, e-readers or tablet devices, up from 76 percent last year: 85

Rank of newspapers (88 percent), consumer magazines (83 percent) and business publications (79 percent) on the list of publications most likely to have mobile initiatives in place: 1, 2, 3

Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Idle Thought

"A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved." -- Charles F. Kettering, inventor and engineer (1876-1958)

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

Percentage of American workers who are "not engaged" or "actively disengaged" in their work, meaning they are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and are less likely to be productive, according to a Gallup poll: 71

Percentage who are "engaged," or involved in and enthusiastic about their work and contributing to their organizations in a positive manner: 29

Source: Gallup.

Percentage of individuals currently paying rent for their residences who said they would prefer to own their own houses, according to a survey on behalf of Whirlpool Corp. and Habitat for Humanity International conducted by the National Association of Home Builders' Research Center: 68

Estimated percentage of households in the United States that live in rental housing (according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University): 33

Source: Whirlpool.

Percentage of Americans who said privacy is important during a job search, according to a survey commissioned by TheLadders.com: 88

Percentage of respondents who say when searching online, keeping their resume private from their peers is more important than maximizing its exposure: 55

Percentage who go as far as to say it would be worse for co-workers to find out about their job search than finding out about an office romance: 30

Source: TheLadders.com.

Percentage of IT professionals who are happy at their current job, according to a survey by Modis and conducted by Braun Research Inc.: 89

Percentage who intend to stay where they are presently employed: 64

Percentage of all IT professionals who expect a raise next year: 44

Source: Modis.

Percentage of Americans who believe overweight and obese individuals should be penalized for their unhealthful habits, according to the Thomson Reuters-NPR Health Poll: 30.7

When asked if they thought it was acceptable to deny employment to overweight or obese individuals, percentage of Americans who said yes: 11.3

Source: Thomson Reuters.

Number of cosmetic procedures that were performed in 2010, up 5 percent from previous years, according to a study released by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons: 13.1 million

Percentage rise in the number of facelifts, with nearly 113,000 procedures: 9

Source: ASPS.

Percentage of manufacturers that will give employees both Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday as paid holidays, according to BNA's annual survey of employers' year-end holiday plans: 90

Percentage of employers in non-manufacturing that will give employees both Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday as paid holidays: 71

Rank of overtime pay (45 percent) in the form of either time-and-a-half (26 percent) or double-time pay (19 percent) on the list of the most frequent forms of compensation offered to those who work on Thanksgiving Day: 1

Source: BNA-Bloomberg.

When asked, "On average, how well prepared academically would you say children are when they first enter your kindergarten classroom" -- percentage of teachers who stated that students were only somewhat or not at all prepared, according to the results of a nationwide kindergarten preparedness survey released by Age of Learning Inc.: 66

Percentage of teachers who said that the majority of children do not know their alphabet when they enter kindergarten: 67

Source: Age of Learning.

Year that all railroads in the U.S. began operating on a unified system of time zones, replacing a chaotic welter of different timetables, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1883

Year that an international conference in Washington, D.C., adjourned after establishing the system of times zones around the world that is in use today: 1884

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Idle Thought

"He who strikes the first blow admits he's lost the argument." -- Chinese Proverb

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

Rank of input from family and friends on the list of the most trusted sources of information about destinations and travel, according to a survey by Ypartnership/Harrison Group 2011: 1

Percentage of American travelers who have the highest degree of confidence in personal recommendations: 80

Source: Ypartnership Public Relations.

Despite incorporating digital media into their lifestyles, percentage of America's most successful and influential business leaders who still utilize print on a daily basis, according to the Business Elite USA survey from Ipsos MediaCT: 87

Percentage of this group who have accessed news via a smartphone or tablet app in the past week: 52

Source: Ipsos MediaCT.

Percentage of millenials (ages 18-29) who agree that the economy grows best when individuals are allowed to create businesses without government interference, according to a poll by sponsored by Generation Opportunity: 59

Percentage of these young Americans who said that if taxes on business profits were reduced, companies would be more likely to hire: 53

Source: Generation Opportunity.

Percentage of employers who have designated both Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 24) and the day after as paid holidays in 2011, down from the 74 percent and the 79 percent that did so in 2010 and 2009, respectively, according to BNA's annual survey of employers' year-end holiday plans: 72

As in previous years, percentage of employers who have scheduled Thanksgiving Day as a paid holiday for employees: 96

Percentage of employers who will require some employees to work on Thanksgiving Day: 29

Source: BNA-Bloomberg.

Approximate age at which Americans become proud of their longevity, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 85

Estimated number of Americans aged 100 or over: 70,500

In 1950, Estimated number of Americans aged 100 or over: 2,300.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of employees who continue to be plagued by stress, according to the StressPulse survey by the ComPsych Corporation: 66

Percentage who say they come to work too stressed to be effective on five or more days per year: 29

Ranks of workload, people issues, juggling work/personal life and lack of job security on the list of the top causes of stress: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: ComPsych Corp.

Percentage of Americans qualified as "heavy" text-message users (50 or more texts sent or received a day) who said they preferred texting to speaking on the phone: 55

Average number of text messages sent or received daily by young adults between the ages of 18 and 24: 109.5

Source: PEW Internet and American Life Project.

Ranks of complying with government regulations, consumer confidence in the economy, lack of consumer demand and lack of credit on the list of the most important problems facing small business today, according to the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index poll: 1, 2, 3, 4

Approximate percentage of small-business owners who say they are very or moderately worried about going out of business: 36

Percentage who are worried about not being able to compete with large or global competitors, not being able to hire the number of employees they need and not being able to pay their employees: 37

Source: Gallup.

Percentage of Americans who took precautions to protect their privacy online, according to the results from Anonymizer Inc.'s second annual privacy and security survey: 95

When asked what makes them most nervous about being online, percentage of respondents who said having their bank account and credit card information stolen: 31

Percentage who cited computer viruses: 19

Source: Anonymizer Inc.

Idle Thought

"Never mistake motion for action." -- Ernest Hemingway

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