For the first time in history, a plurality of the world’s population now works in the service industry. According to data gathered by the International Labor Organization, 42 percent of the world’s population worked in the services trade in 2006, up from 37 percent in 1996. Not all ‘white collar’ work, however, is created equal. Productivity between countries still remains highly variable. The U.S. continues to top the list for amount of value added per employee, followed by Ireland, whose productivity relative to the U.S. increased between 1980 and 2005. But in half of the countries in Latin America and the Pacific, productivity (as a percentage of the U.S. rate) actually declined.
Source: International Labor Organization, August 2007.

Reading Religiously
Americans are reading…religiously. According to an August 2007 Associated Press poll, 73 percent of Americans said that they had read a book in the past year. Of these, 30 percent reported reading between one and five books; 23 percent, between six and fifteen books. One-fifth said that they had read more than fifteen. Religious texts top Americans’ reading lists. Among people who claimed to have read one or more books, 64 percent said they had read the Bible or another religious text.  

Source: Associated Press-IPSOS Poll, August 2007.

Commander-in-Chief...and CEO
At this stage of the presidential campaign, most Americans are just getting to know the presidential candidates. Questions about the public's comfort level with them are especially valuable, as are questions about perceived levels of competence. ABC News recently asked Americans which candidate they would want to run a company where they worked. Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton swamped her Democratic opponents, as did Giuliani on the Republican side. When frontrunners Clinton and Giuliani were matched, people were slightly more likely to give the nod to Clinton; 45 percent said that they would want Clinton to run their company compared to 42 percent for Giuliani.

Source: ABC News, August 2007.

Death Penalty Differences
Whites and blacks differ strongly in their attitudes toward the death penalty. In a recent Gallup survey, 70 percent of whites compared to just 40 percent of blacks favored the death penalty for someone convicted of murder. The survey organization has shown a consistent black-white gap since it first compared the responses of blacks and whites in March 1972. In that poll, 53 percent of whites and only 23 percent of blacks approved.

Source: The Gallup Organization, June 2007.