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Significant Digits For Wednesday, May 6, 2015

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4 percent

Organizations that are hemorrhaging talent like to poke millennials with claims that they (ok, we) are incapable of staying at a workplace. But our flight is just a “young people” thing in general, regardless of generation. Every month 3 percent of working 22- to 29-year-olds change jobs. In the mid-1990s that rate was 4 percent. [FiveThirtyEight]


16 states

New York is poised to become the 16th and largest state to have a standardized bar exam. The exam makes it easier for lawyers to pass the bar in more than one state. The size and litigiousness of New Yorkers could push other states to offer the standardized exam as well. [The New York Times]

34-5

The Kansas state senate voted 34-5 to override a gubernatorial veto of a bill that institutes background checks for ride-sharing drivers and cranks up the insurance they’d need. Uber has suspended operations in the state. [Mashable]

3.6 percent

Summer is coming, and California is dry. Residents and businesses decreased water usage this March by only 3.6 percent compared to March 2014. California wants to reduce urban consumption by 25 percent. [Los Angeles Times]


60 percent

Percentage of Americans who think publishing cartoons of Muhammad is “okay.” [The Washington Post]


$7 million

That’s the bounty placed by the State Department for info on Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, a leader of ISIS. It’s the highest offered amount among four top ISIS leaders the department is seeking. [Associated Press]


$1.1 billion

The EU is looking into union claims that McDonald’s dodged 1 billion euros — about $1.1 billion — in taxes through a loophole. As a guy who is secretly really into dubious international corporate tax maneuvering lingo, I was really, really hoping to make a “McDouble Irish” or “Dutch McChicken Sandwich” joke here but authorities say they may have routed profits through Luxembourg. To my knowledge a charming name has not yet been cooked up for that particular corporate tax avoidance strategy. If this turns out to be true I suggest we call it the “Quarter £-er with kachkéis” in McDonald’s honor. [The Guardian]

$91 billion

That’s U.S. sales of sportswear apparel. Many people are just wearing sportswear like they’re real clothes. Sales are up 9.8 percent compared to last year and 27 percent compared to 2007. [The Wall Street Journal]

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And, as always, if you see a significant digit in the wild, tweet it to me @WaltHickey.

CORRECTION (May 6, 2:40 p.m.): This post originally misstated that the EU is investigating claims that McDonald’s dodged £1 billion of taxes. The claim is that the company dodged 1 billion euros worth of taxes.

Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer.

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