Percentage fewer graduates that employers plan to hire from the class of 2009 than from last year's class, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers: 22

Percentage of former American graduates whose advice to the class of 2009 is to pick a career because they like it, not because of earning potential, according to the results of the American Adecco Workplace Insights Survey: 71

Percentage of Americans who advise current students to pick a career based on salary alone: 13

WOMEN'S WEAR

Year when one of the basics of most women's wardrobes, nylon stockings, went on sale for the first time, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1940

Number of pairs of nylon stockings that were sold that first year, though they soon became scarce as nylon production went to the war effort making items such as parachutes: 63 million

Estimated number of women's clothing stores across the U.S.: 47,000

Annual value of the apparel and accessories market: $31 billion

HEALTHCARE NEEDS

Projected percentage of GDP represented by domestic healthcare costs by 2010, according to a Gallup Poll: 21

Percentage of Americans who would consider traveling abroad for medical procedures such as heart bypass surgery, hip or knee replacement, plastic surgery, cancer diagnosis and treatment, or alternative medical care, even though all are routinely done in the United States: 29

Assuming equal quality and significantly cheaper cost, percentage who said they would be willing to travel abroad for medical procedures: 40

GETTING AWAY

Number of domestic leisure trips during June, July and August of 2009 that Americans are expected to take, according to the annual summer travel forecast by the U.S. Travel Association: 322 million

Percentage decline from summer 2008, though leisure travel remains resilient in the current economic climate: 2.2

IDLE THOUGHT

"Our heads are round so that thoughts can change direction."

— Francis Picabia, painter and poet

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