Numbers: Aug. 27, 2007

WORKPLACE

32%

Average increase in number of job cuts between Labor Day and year’s end

4.6%

U.S. unemployment rate in July, as measured by the Department of Labor

PLAGUES

240%

Increase in bedbug work performed by California’s Western Extermination Co. between 2000 and 2006. Single-family homes and schools are among those now reporting infestation

50

Average number of bedbug-related phone calls received each week by U.S. pest-control companies, according to the National Pest Management Association

EDUCATION

205,983

Number of Americans who studied at foreign universities in 2006–an increase of 150% from 10 years ago

15

Number of students a U.S. college official must sign up for study abroad in order to receive a free trip from the American Institute of Foreign Study. Eager for the high fees paid by American students, foreign schools and study-abroad facilitators are dangling perks for administrators who deliver students

NATURE

8 million years

Age of a stand of preserved cypress trees discovered in a Hungarian mine

200 ft.

Depth of the mine, which was once an open-air forest. The 19-ft.-tall trunks are the remains of trees that once stood 120 ft. tall. The wood is too brittle to move

Sources: Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.; Department of Labor; Los Angeles Times (2); New York Times; Institute of International Education; Reuters (2)