Students in the U.S. are most likely globally to use technology to complete assignments in the classroom, according to a survey by Cambridge International. About three out of four U.S. students (74 percent) use their smartphones as educational aids in the classroom, compared with 42 percent globally.

Tutoring

U.S. students are the least likely (12 percent) to receive tutoring outside of school hours, while students in China are the most likely (57 percent). Globally, four in 10 students (43 percent) globally reported receiving tutoring outside of school.

Sports

Six in 10 U.S. students (60 percent) don’t play any sport at school, second-highest only to Spain (62 percent). The most commonly played sport in the United States is cross-country and track (10 percent).

The Global Education Census report focused on 10 countries: the United States, China, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Indonesia and Argentina.

The state and local taxes paid by businesses rose 2 percent to $738.4 billion in 2017 from the prior year, according to a study by Ernst & Young LLP, the Council on State Taxation and the State Tax Research Institute.

State business taxes increased by 0.4 percent and local business tax grew by 3.7 percent. Business tax revenue accounted for approximately 44% of all state and local tax revenue in 2017.

Property taxes had the biggest share of total state and local business tax revenue at 38.9 percent, or $287.4 billion, in 2017. Business property tax revenue rose 3.9 percent in 2017, the fifth time since 2009 that the growth rate was greater than 1 percent.

State and local corporate income and business gross receipts tax revenue fell 0.7 percent to $62.7 billion in 2017. Federal tax reform, under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), was signed into law in December of 2017, reducing federal corporate income taxes while expanding state income tax bases.

General sales and use tax revenue derived from businesses on purchases of inputs, including capital equipment, rose 2.7 percent to $157.4 billion in 2017 from the prior year, making up 21.3 percent of all state and local business taxes. Sales taxes on business inputs are the largest state tax paid by businesses, representing 32.4 percent of all state taxes paid by businesses.

Fifty percent of respondents who had transacted on the Drizly platform said that they had purchased from an order-fulfilling retailer for the first time. Moreover, 64 percent of those first-time customers said that they had subsequently shopped, or would strongly consider shopping, at the retailer’s physical location after their initial purchase through Drizly, whose network encompasses nearly 1,000 retail locations in the United States and Canada, according to a statement.

Key findings from the survey of about 4,000 Drizly users in October:

  • 50%: consumers reported shopping at a retailer for the first time through the Drizly platform
  • 64%: first-time shoppers of a retailer through Drizly said they would consider shopping at the same retailer’s physical location
  • 98%: shoppers who said they would purchase again on Drizly from a retailer that they had already shopped on the platform
  • 75%: shoppers that have repeat-purchased through Drizly have done so from the same retailer

American families prefer to enjoy the comforts of home rather than going out as they feel less connected to other people. The portion of people who said “my personal values and point of view are shared by most Americans today” this year fell to 47 percent from 68 percent in 1987, according to a survey by publisher Trusted Media Brands and Kantar Consulting.

Stagnant wages, the divisive political environment and greater choices of on-demand entertainment and delivery options at home are among the reasons for “home-basing.”

“With Americans feeling less connected to their fellow citizens than any time in recent history, people are turning to smaller circles, and longing for a greater sense of belonging to their community, friends, and, above all, family,” the report said. “Today’s home is above all a sanctuary for modern families and a place to be productive, to connect and recharge.”

When asked to describe their homes, “comfortable” was the word chosen most often (81 percent), ahead of safe (68 percent) and loving (61 percent). The top home activities among family members are socializing (95 percent), watching movies or TV together (89 percent), playing board games (82 percent) and cooking together (82 percent), the survey found.


Source: Kantar Consulting

Americans are concerned that the health-related information they see on social media is incorrect or misleading, a survey found.

About two-thirds (67 percent) of U.S. adults who seek health-related facts at least once a year, aside from an annual checkup with a doctor, have seen health information on social media. More than eight in 10 (83 percent) of those social media users are concerned about the accuracy of the health information they see, according to the survey by global communications and marketing services firm Weber Shandwick and KRC Research.

The companies surveyed 1,700 Americans ages 18 and older.


Source: Weber Shandwick, KRC Research

Source: Weber Shandwick, KRC Research

The U.S. Postal Service estimates will deliver about 15 billion pieces of mail and 900 million packages between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, according to an announcement. The week of December 17-23 is predicted to be the busiest mailing, shipping and delivery week, when the postal service will process and deliver about 3 billion pieces of First-Class Mail, including greeting cards.

Almost three-fourths (71 percent) of marketers said evaluating the effectiveness of digital media investment has become more difficult in recent years, particularly in India and China, according to programmatic media platform Xaxis. In addition, 86 percent of marketers plan in the next one to two years to boost spending on “outcome-driven media,” which describes advertising whose effects can be precisely tracked by measurements such as cost per in-target reach, in-store footfall, cost per incremental site visitor or cost per sale.


Source: Xaxis

Source: Xaxis

Smart-speaker shipments almost tripled (up 197%) to a record 22.7 million units globally in the third quarter from a year earlier, putting the voice-enabled devices on track to exceed 100 million in use during the final three months of 2018, according to researcher Strategy Analytics. Amazon remained the top-ranked vendor in the third quarter with a 32 percent share followed by Google at 23 percent. China’s Baidu boosted its share from just 1 percent in the second quarter to 8 percent in the third quarter, the fastest growth among smart-speaker makers. Baidu, Alibaba and Xiaomi are vying leadership in the fledgling smart speaker market in China.