Survey

The nation's work force is aging, and for several years now the federal government has recognized that its workers are aging more than most. The good news released in a survey this week is that many experienced federal workers aren't going anywhere, at least not anytime soon. The third in a series of surveys of government employees' attitudes toward their jobs, benefits and bosses found that only 4 percent of respondents plan to retire by this summer and 12 percent during the one to three years after that.

CUSTOMER satisfaction is as important for schools as for any enterprise. Howard County schools deserve praise for conducting a new survey that reveals what parents, students and teachers think of the system.Most participants in the survey were satisfied. About 86 percent said Howard schools "promote creativity, responsible risk-taking, cooperation, mutual trust and respect." Shortcomings pointed out by the survey were known. But reiterating these problems should spark efforts to address them.

Baltimore employers plan to hold the line on hiring in the fourth quarter, according to a generally upbeat outlook for the area's employment growth.The survey's results, to be released today by Manpower Inc., a Milwaukee-based temporary-help business, also show job demand is on the rise compared with the fourth quarter of last year.According to the survey, 51 percent of the companies polled plan no change in hiring; 34 percent anticipate job growth; and 4 percent said they expect to reduce their work force.

Marijuana and cigarette use is rising among Maryland's high school seniors, and alcohol consumption remains high, despite extensive drug education, according to a state Department of Education survey released yesterday.Although drinking among 12th-graders dropped slightly since the last survey in 1994, more than half of the seniors polled in December said they had consumed alcohol at least three times during the previous 30 days. More than a third said they had consumed five or more drinks on one occasion during that period.

Despite an apparent die-off of adult crabs last winter, the Chesapeake Bay's crab population is at its highest level in seven years, thanks to a bumper crop of babies, federal fisheries officials say.A survey last winter of 1,200 locations in Maryland and Virginia found almost twice as many slumbering crabs as were found the year before.The number of crabs collected by dragging a 6-foot dredge across the bay and river bottoms was 49 percent higher than the average result from the previous six years of surveys.

This is how important it is to Americans to own their own home, according to the latest Fannie Mae survey:Ninety-one percent would drive a cheaper car if that made the difference between being able to own and renting, up from 81 percent in 1992.Eighty-one percent would commute a longer distance to work, if cheaper prices farther out made ownership possible, up from 63 percent four years ago.Sixty-seven percent would put off retirement for 10 years, up from 59 percent in 1992."Americans have an even stronger desire for homeownership today than we found in 1992," said James A. Johnson, chairman and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae, in releasing the 1996 survey results.

David Honsinger was pretty pleased when he got the letter telling him he had been accepted at Towson State University.At 30, he is a lot older than most entering students. But having spent seven years in the Air Force, he now was ready for academia.He thought.Not long ago, Honsinger went down to the campus for his orientation session, sat through a bunch of speeches and then got handed a packet of material."It was a half-inch thick," Honsinger said. "There was a school newspaper and a student guidebook and all this other stuff.

NOT ALL IS well among a large number of Carroll County teen-agers.Too many are binge drinkers, inhalant users, marijuana and cigarette smokers.So says the latest Maryland Adolescent Survey. The results show that a great many county teens are engaging in behavior that threatens their lives, damages their long-term health and impedes their scholastic performance.This survey -- chock full of tables, statistics and other data -- should be must reading for anyone with more than a passing concern about the county's youth.

North Arundel Hospital recently received a Gallup Quality Award from the Gallup organization.The award was based on an opinion survey of 280 randomly selected patients during the past year. They were asked to answer questions about nursing and physician care, the admissions process and the general atmosphere of the hospital.The recognition places the facility among the top 20 percent of the 250 hospitals currently being surveyed nationwide by Gallup.The results of Gallup's surveys, which began in May 1992, indicate that, overall, patients are satisfied with their experiences at North Arundel.

The question is, as always, what do women want?The latest answer, just in, is that they don't want, well, you know. S-E-X. They don't even think about it much.According to the latest, most-definitive-ever sex survey -- conducted by highly credentialed, if often drooling, academicians -- only a small percentage of women said they thought about sex more than once a day. For men, I believe, the exact percentage was "everyone but eunuchs."Can this possibly be true of women? Did anybody tell Warren Beatty about this?

Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration released the results of its survey of Baltimore residents Thursday and confirmed two things that should be fairly obvious to most people who live here. One, illegal drug use and violent crime are major concerns of city residents, as is the difficulty of finding good jobs. And two, Baltimore is a Balkanized place. Residents reported a curious disconnect between how they felt about their neighborhoods and how they felt about the city as a whole, particularly when it comes to crime.

It's hard to believe after witnessing the daily idiocy that pervades Maryland's roads, but there's a glimmer of hope that the state's drivers might be getting a little more serious about safety. The hopeful signs come in a recently released study by the University of Maryland School of Public Health in College Park, which surveyed 850 licensed drivers each year between 2003 and 2009 about their driving practices, attitudes and concerns. The findings are a mixed bag. It turns out we're increasingly concerned about cell phone use while driving.

Here's a classic good news-bad news study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: It appears that more than three decades of strong anti-drunken driving messages and stronger enforcement are having some impact. In a 2007 survey, NHTSA found that the percentage of drivers on weekend nights who have a blood-alcohol level higher than the prevailing national limit of .08 percent has fallen to 2.2 percent. It's still pretty scary that one in 50 drivers on the road is drunk at those times, but that's an improvement from the downright terrifying 7.5 percent that prevailed in 1973, when the first such survey was taken.

Here's the cheery message that greets all fathers as we slog through this wonderful spring of recession and layoffs and swine flu: Dear Dad, take a hike. I say this because of a new and depressing national survey released just in time for Mother's Day. The survey shows adult children would overwhelmingly choose to have Mom move in with them instead of Dad if their elderly parents couldn't take care of themselves. My fellow dads: Is this beautiful or what? In fact, the survey by Towson-based Senior Helpers, a provider of in-home care for the aging, showed that fully 70 percent of adult children would pick Mom over Dad. Yes, when it comes to making the big decision about which parent to take in, the thinking apparently goes like this: Poor old Mom needs a little help.

We know employers and recruiters use social networking sites to vet job candidates and even see what current employees are up to. Now we have a better insight into how they're using that information, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Since 2006, there has been a 17 percent increase in human resources executives who use sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn as recruiting, resume verification and candidate screening tools at least occasionally, according to the survey of nearly 600 HR professionals.

Most workers say they have little to celebrate this Labor Day. Several recent surveys depict a general malaise among workers and depression about the job market and the economy. A survey of 1,000 Americans released yesterday concluded worker confidence about the economy is lower than during the recession of 2001 - even though the unemployment rate now is below 2001 levels. The nation's unemployment rate is 5.7 percent, higher than Maryland's 4.4 percent. The researchers also point out concern over declining home values and rising gas prices.

Welcome to vacation season. About 69 percent of workers take time off between Memorial Day and Labor Day, according to a new survey of 2,033 employees by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc., a work force management firm. Of course, the challenge for employers is making sure there's enough staff to man the office, meet deadlines and get work done. The Kronos survey found that 21 percent of employees have been denied a particular vacation time because a co-worker had already requested it. But it's becoming more difficult to go on vacation these days because of skyrocketing gas prices.

Local consumers prefer buying their produce from Maryland farmers, and nearly half of the grocery shoppers say they would be willing to pay more for locally grown fruits and vegetables. These are several of the findings related to agriculture in the latest annual public opinion survey by the University of Baltimore's Schaefer Center for Public Policy. Nearly 78 percent of the adults surveyed said they would be more likely to buy produce that is identified as having been grown by Maryland farmers.

The National Association of Realtors surveyed 2,530 homebuyers, both first-timers and repeat buyers, who purchased a new or resale home between late 2005 and early this year. The survey showed that the typical house purchased during that period was one story with three bedrooms, two baths and 1,840 square feet. The median price paid was $205,000. According to the survey, the top-ranked features included central air, a garage with two or more spaces, walk-in master closet, backyard/play area and high-speed Internet access.

Each week, my inbox fills up quickly with surveys that explore some aspect of the workplace, some serious, some light-hearted. Here's a sampling of recent surveys that can be used for watercooler fodder or a good laugh: A survey commissioned by Diet Pepsi Max, a highly caffeinated new soda, found that 50 percent of 1,102 respondents have caught someone asleep on the job, while 28 percent have fallen asleep at work themselves. Apparently, auto mechanics have the highest rate of on-the-job snoozing at 65 percent, followed by government workers at 51 percent.