Editor's Note: Gallup re-estimated its Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index and Life Evaluation Index data from January 2008 to April 2009 to address context effects that Gallup discovered after the data were originally published.
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index reveals that a baseline of between about 1% and 4% of the adult population reports being sick with flu on any given day, including about 2.1% on an average day so far this April. Younger Americans are more likely than older Americans to report having the flu.
Gallup's hiring measure suggests that Thursday, the government will likely report that weekly jobless claims for the week ending Jan. 10 surged past the 500,000 consensus estimate -- far exceeding the 467,000 reported for the previous week.