Survey

This year's college freshmen report feeling higher levels of emotional and financial stress than their predecessors did, according to a national survey conducted by UCLA researchers. The annual "American Freshman" report, released Thursday, showed that only about half of current first-year students, 51.9%, rated their emotional health above average or higher, down from 55.3% last year and the lowest since the question was first asked 25 years ago. Just 45.9% of women in the class described themselves as emotionally strong, compared with 59.1% of the men. In addition, nearly two-thirds of this year's freshmen, 62.1%, said the recession had affected their choice of college, and 73.4%, up from 70% last year, are depending on grants and scholarships to help them through.

With average gasoline prices topping $4 a gallon, fewer Southern California residents say they plan to take a leisure trip over spring break, according to a survey by the Auto Club of Southern California. The annual survey of Auto Club members found that 47% said they plan at least one leisure trip this spring break season, compared with 57% in 2012 and 55% in 2011. High gasoline prices prompted 69% of those polled to say they made at least one significant cut to their budget, compared with 66% in 2012 and 61% in 2011.

NEW YORK -- Nearly half of Wall Streeters expect bigger annual bonuses this year, an industry study has found. Forty-eight percent of the 911 financial-services employees surveyed by EFinancialCareers believe their payouts will be higher than last year, the survey found. That's an increase from last year, when the survey found 41% believing their bonuses would jump. “The mood is better, some people will be happier, but we still have another quarter to go,” Constance Melrose, a managing director for EFinancialCareers, told Bloomberg News.

The "staycation" is not yet dead, but its popularity may be waning. The tendency to stay close to home for vacation - a trend that became popular during the Great Recession - is losing its appeal as more Americans become more interested in having a good time when they travel than in saving money. The findings are from a survey of 2,527 U.S. households by marketing and research firms MMGY Global and Harrison Group. The survey found that the average amount spent on vacations over the last 12 months has grown to $4,461, compared with $3,874 during the same period two years ago. "It's not like everyone's financial situation has improved, but people went through a series of three or four years of paring back on expenses," said Peter Yesawich, vice chairman of MMGY Global.

“Executives doubt U.S. workers have skills to succeed, survey says.” How's that for a thought-provoking (or maybe just “provoking”) headline? Talk about "Workers of the World Unite!" time. It seems that the American Management Assn. surveyed U.S. executives and found that a majority rate their workers "average at best" in creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication. Actually, it gets worse. As my colleague Shan Li reported Friday: And the number of managers who rate their workers "below average" rose in all four categories: 9.8% believe their employees lack critical thinking skills (up from 6.2% in 2010)

Perhaps proving the old adage that money cannot buy happiness, two-thirds of bankers say they were unsatisfied with their pay last year. Nearly 70% of finance professionals from New York, London and Singapore reported they were "unhappy" with their salary and bonus packages in 2012 and should have been more amply compensated, according to financial headhunting firm Selby Jennings. When asked to take into account recovering economies around the world, nearly 50% concluded that their pay was still unfair.

About 7% of the world's workforce is unemployed while 40% have stable jobs with a full-time employer, according to a new report from Gallup. The data released Wednesday came from Gallup surveys conducted in 129 countries and regions in 2009 and 2010, and represent the first results from an initiative by the public opinion firm to look at global employment. The United Nations reported about a year ago that unemployment worldwide was at 6.6% and there were a record 212 million people out of work.

From clearing their browser history to creating private email addresses, teens are increasingly leveraging their tech-savvy skills to hide their online activities from their parents, a new survey found. More than 70% of teens surveyed said they have tricks for deceiving their parents about their online habits, up from 45% of teens in 2010 who said they used such tricks, according to a Teen Internet Behavior study released this week by McAfee, the online-security tech company. By contrast, many parents said they feel overwhelmed and unable to keep up with technologies, with 23% saying they have thrown up their hands and "just hope for the best," according to the survey.

The good news for President Obama: Latino registered voters prefer him over Mitt Romney by more than a 3-to-1 ratio, and are increasingly satisfied with the nation's direction and their personal finances. The bad news: They're thinking less about the election and are less certain than registered voters in general about whether they are actually going to cast ballots in the presidential election. That's not what you want to hear -- if you're an Obama backer -- from a group that historically hasn't met its growing potential when it comes to voter turnout.

The real estate bust appears to have done little to alter Americans' confidence in the investment value of homeownership. A robust 81% of adults said buying a home is the best long-term investment a person can make, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center in Washington. "Owning a home is really a part of the American dream, and that is just part of the American psyche and something that people aspire to," said Kim Parker, associate director for the center and one of the study's authors.