Number Crunch
A global study conducted by Microsoft’s Work Trend Index found that 41% of respondents were considering leaving their jobs
41%: That’s the share of respondents in a 30,000-person global survey of workers conducted by Microsoft’s Work Trend Index who say they are considering leaving their jobs, as reported by Bloomberg.
The survey found that 54% of workers say they are overworked, and 39% say they are exhausted. Their bosses, meanwhile, seem not to be sharing in their struggles, as a majority of managers and company leaders surveyed reported that they were thriving at work.
Working remotely during the pandemic appears to be a mixed bag for workers — while some employees value the flexibility it provides, others suffer from…
Number Crunch
Forget ‘Titanic’. ‘Ever Given’ is the maritime blockbuster we need
$400 million per hour: That’s the economic cost caused by a quarter-mile-long container ship that has been stuck in the Suez Canal since Wednesday, blocking passage for other ships on one of the world’s busiest trade routes, based on a rough estimate by Lloyd’s List, as reported by Bloomberg.
Rescue efforts have been ongoing, with the cargo ship Ever Given having been partially refloated but still stuck in the middle of the Suez Canal. The canal accounts for roughly 12% of the world’s seaborne trade, which should give you an idea of how much global trade is at a standstill…
Number Crunch
Standardized testing is back, but this time it’s for Covid-19
$10 billion: That’s how much the U.S. government will spend on Covid-19 testing in schools across the country, according to the Wall Street Journal. The funding, part of the recent $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, formally known as the American Rescue Plan Act, is meant to fuel the Biden administration’s drive to get as many schools reopened as quickly as possible — an effort that’s fast becoming a political issue as much as a health and safety issue.
While schools have not proven to be Covid-19 hot spots per se, widespread closures have been a pain point for many Americans…
Number Crunch
The gig companies don’t pay into unemployment insurance for their drivers, who have depended on a federal small business loan program to get through the pandemic
$80 million: That’s at least how much government assistance tens of thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers received during the pandemic under the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loans program, established to provide assistance to small businesses, entrepreneurs, and independent contractors during the pandemic. That makes their drivers one of the largest groups to benefit from the program, according to an investigation by the Washington Post.
Critics claim that Uber and Lyft are shifting employer costs to the government. Last year, Uber and Lyft, along with Instacart and DoorDash, collectively spent $202 million on a successful campaign to…
Number Crunch
The cost of not giving black films and filmmakers the funding, support, or distribution they deserve
$10 billion: That’s how much the American film and TV industry stands to gain in annual revenues, a 7% increase from the baseline, by addressing racial inequities prevalent in the industry, according to a recent study by the consultancy McKinsey, and reported in Deadline.
The McKinsey study found that Black-led film and TV projects are consistently underfunded and undervalued even though they tend to outperform other projects when it comes to returns on investment. …
Number Crunch
Corporate merchandise is going crypto
10 ETH, or approximately $18,000: That’s how much a limited-edition digital collectible created by Taco Bell sold for on the NFT trading platform Rarible last week. The fast-food chain last week issued a series of four different collectible GIF depictions of tacos in different art styles, each in a collection of five, all of which have been sold. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are records of ownership of digital assets on the Ethereum blockchain, providing a degree of uniqueness and scarcity to otherwise endlessly reproducible digital items.
Although the buyer who paid $18,000 for one of the Taco Bell NFTs bought…
Number Crunch
Investors are hot for the business of keeping things cold
$18 billion: That’s the recent valuation of Lineage Logistics, a Novi, Michigan-based company that is now the world’s largest temperature-controlled warehouse and storage firm (as gauged by total space), according to the Wall Street Journal. Sure, Zoom, Robinhood, and Peloton grab a lot more headlines as “pandemic winners.” But private firm Lineage fits the description, too, as the cold-storage business has heated up over the past year.
The reason: The skyrocketing demand for food delivery and online grocery shopping during the pandemic has led to increased demand for cold-storage warehousing. …
NUMBER CRUNCH
Only 1% of global lithium is currently mined in the U.S. That could be a problem.
1%: That’s the share of global lithium that is currently mined and processed in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal. For context, China mines 10% of the world’s lithium and processes more than two-thirds of the raw metal, which is the core component of rechargeable batteries that power cell phones, laptops, and increasingly electric vehicles.
Climate scientists and analysts forecast a rising demand surge for lithium as fossil fuels take a backseat with the market share of EVs expected to balloon to roughly 50% of total cars manufactured worldwide by 2030. Now, the federal government is focusing on…
Number Crunch
The streaming service is going to infinity and beyond
100 million: That’s the number of subscribers Disney+ has gained in just 16 months, per CNBC.
Prior to its launch in November 2019, Disney’s streaming service stated its goal of acquiring between 60 million and 90 million subscribers by 2024, a goal it has already blown past. The company’s revised goal for 2024? Reaching 230 million to 260 million subscribers.
To understand what a feat this is for Disney, consider the fact that it took Netflix 10 years to reach the 100 million subscriber milestone. (Netflix crossed the 200 million mark in January.) Of course, Disney has several advantages that…
Number Crunch
It turns out it’s mostly tech moguls who have the stomach for the Sunshine State
1.38%, or 297,851 people: That’s how much Florida’s population is expected to have grown annually by April, according to the state’s November 2020 Demographic Estimating Conference, per The Wall Street Journal. The state is expected to have added close to 298,000 residents since April 2020.
When the pandemic created a sudden shift to remote work, it appeared that it was resulting in an exodus of white-collar professionals from expensive cities like San Francisco and New York City to locales with lower costs of living and better weather (and, in some cases, less stringent shutdowns), like Austin and Miami.
However, reports…
