These stats on stealing might surprise you

In this week’s sermon on the ninth commandment—Do Not Steal—Pastor Mark describes three ways to treat money and possessions:

What’s mine is mine—I’ll keep it.
What’s yours is mine—I’ll steal it.
What’s mine is God’s—I’ll steward it.

To illustrate these competing outlooks and their implications, Pastor Mark cited numerous related statistics. We thought it would be helpful to post these on the blog for reference:

Credit card debt

Average credit card debt per U.S. adult: $4,878
Average debt per credit card that usually carries a balance: $8,220
Nearly two in five Americans (39 percent) carry credit card debt from month to month, as of March 2012.
85 percent of respondents in a March 2013 poll said they were unlikely or somewhat unlikely to talk with a stranger about credit card debt—a subject more taboo than religion, politics, salary and love life details.

Source: CreditCards.com

U.S. national debt

$17 trillion
$53,770 per citizen
$148,763 per taxpayer
$117,647 per worker

Source: US Debt Clock

Shoplifting

U.S. retailers lose about $35 billion in stolen goods each year, or about $100 million per day.
There are approximately 27 million shoplifters in our nation today, or about 10% of the population.
25% of shoplifters are kids, 75% are adults. 55% of adult shoplifters say they started shoplifting in their teens.
89% of kids say they know other kids who shoplift. There is no profile of a typical shoplifter. Men and women shoplift about equally as often.
Shoplifters say they are caught an average of only once in every 48 times they steal.

Sources: Hayes International consultants and National Association of Shoplifting Prevention

Employee theft

One in every 40 employees was apprehended for theft from their employer in 2012.
On a per-case average, dishonest employees steal 5.5 times the amount stolen by shoplifters ($715.24 vs. $129.12).
The cost of employee theft to American companies is $200 billion annually.

Source: Hayes International consultants and US News

Employee time theft

Employees waste 2.09 hours per 8-hour day
Top ten time-wasting activities:
- 44.7% – Internet (personal use)
- 23.4% – Socializing
- 6.8% – Conducting personal business
- 3.9% – Spacing out (daydream)
- 3.1% – Running errands
- 2.3% – Personal phone calls
- 1.3% – Applying for other jobs
- 1% – Planning personal events
- 1% – Arriving late/leaving early
$153.04 average amount earned per day = $39.98 wasted = $9,000+ over the course of a year per employee
Total annual cost to companies: $759 billion
64% of employees visit non-work related websites every day during work hours.
30% of workers feel it’s acceptable to use social media for personal use at work.
Time spent on the computer doing personal tasks during work time (per week):
- 39% – 1 hour or less
- 29% – up to 2 hours
- 21% – up to 5 hours a week
- 3% – 10 hours or more
Responses to, “What websites do you visit if you stray from work?”
- Facebook 41%
- LinkedIn 37%
- Yahoo 31%
- Google+ 28%
- CNN 20%
- YouTube 13%
- Craigslist 10%
- ESPN 8%
- Twitter 8%
- Pinterest 4%