Menu

MeriTalk, the government IT network, announced the results of the “Uncle Sam at Your Service: 2011 Federal Customer Experience Study,” which found that despite year-over-year improvement, just 31 percent of Americans are very satisfied with Federal customer service. Underwritten by RightNow, this new report comes out shortly after the White House released Executive Order 13571 in April 2011, calling for agencies to streamline Federal service delivery and improve customer service. The second annual study reveals that 79 percent of Americans believe the Federal government can improve customer service and that making it easier to determine where to go for an answer is the number one area Federal agencies should focus on to improve.

More than 2,000 mortgage jobs have been eliminated this year, according to the Second-Quarter 2011 Mortgage Employment Index from MortgageDaily.com. But falling rates and worsening loan performance could lead to increased hirings in the second half.

Gallup and Healthways, Inc. released findings from the monthly Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index® (WBI) for July 2011. The WBI composite score remains relatively high at 66.4, just one point lower than the all-time high score of 67.4 from May 2010. The Life Evaluation Index, however, which includes a self-evaluation of whether Americans are “thriving,” “struggling,” or “suffering,” declined to 48.1 in July, a 23-month low and a significant drop from June’s score of 49.9.

Men and women in the South had higher rates of divorce in 2009 than in other regions of the country, 10.2 per 1,000 for men and 11.1 per 1,000 for women, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau. The national divorce rate was 9.2 for men and 9.7 for women.

From April to July 2011, the number of employed youth 16 to 24 years old rose by 1.7 million to 18.6 million, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. This year, the share of young people who were employed in July was 48.8 percent, the lowest July rate on record for the series, which began in 1948. (The month of July typically is the summertime peak in youth employment.) Unemployment among youth increased by 745,000 between April and July, more than last year’s increase of 571,000, but well below the levels seen in 2008 and 2009 (1.2 and 1.1 million, respectively).

While better days may be on the horizon for the commercial bankruptcy market, it remains to be seen if recent trends will continue for the nation's more than 24 million small businesses. According to a national study conducted by Equifax Inc., small business bankruptcies declined by 15.32 percent from Q1 2010 to Q1 2011, with a noticeable drop in key Western states.

As retailers gear up for the holiday shopping season, many hope that the recent stock market turbulence will not prevent the strong end-of-year performance of years past. Retailers have come to count on the sales spike that traditionally occurs during Q4. The US Department of Commerce found that in 2010 retail ecommerce sales jumped from $39.2 billion to $53.2 billion between the third and fourth quarters.

TrueCar.com, the authority on new car pricing, trends and forecasting, released its August 2011 sales and incentives forecast. For August 2011, new light vehicle sales in the U.S. (including fleet) is expected to be 1,076,989 units, up 8.0 percent from August 2010 and up 2.0 percent from July 2011.

Capital One Small Business released the results of its Small Business Barometer survey for the second quarter of 2011. The quarterly survey polls small businesses across the nation, gauging their current financial condition and business projections for the next six months. Survey results from Capital One’s survey for the second quarter, suggests that many U.S. small businesses are experiencing gradual, but continued improvement in financial performance. The small business leaders surveyed also report growing confidence in the economic environment, which appears to be contributing positively to hiring and investment decisions for their business in the near term.

Mortgage rates posted mixed results this week, but the benchmark conforming 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to a record low of 4.41 percent, according to Bankrate.com's weekly national survey. The average 30-year fixed mortgage has an average of 0.43 discount and origination points. The previous record low of 4.42 percent was set in October and November of 2010.