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MerchantCircle, the nation’s largest social network of local business owners, issued the results of its second quarterly “Merchant Confidence Index,” a survey that gauges confidence levels of local business owners in the current U.S. economy. Seven out of 10 merchants indicated that today’s economy was the same or better than it has been over the last 12 months.

Thirty states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, 9 states registered rate decreases, and
11 states had no rate change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Over the year, jobless rates increased in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The national unemployment rate fell from 10.0 percent in December to 9.7 percent in January, but was up from 7.7 percent a year earlier.

Private industry employers spent an average of $27.42 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Wages and salaries averaged $19.41 per hour worked and accounted for 70.8 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $8.00 and accounted for the remaining 29.2 percent. Total compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $39.60 per hour worked in December 2009. Total employer compensation costs for civilian workers, which
include private industry and state and local government workers, averaged $29.37 per hour worked in December 2009.

There were 2.7 million job openings on the last business day of January 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The job openings rate rose over the month to 2.1 percent, the highest the rate has been since February 2009. The hires rate (3.1 percent) and the separations rate (3.2 percent) were unchanged in January.

Americans are no longer dwelling on concerns about the economy and instead are focused on rebuilding their finances for the future, according to new research from the Principal Financial Well-Being IndexSM.

comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month period between October 2009 and January 2010. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S. according to their share of current mobile subscribers age 13 and older, as well as popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber’s primary mobile phone. The January report found Motorola to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.9 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 43.0 percent market share.

Nearly all consumers (97 percent) now use online media when researching products or services in their local area, according to BIA/Kelsey's User View Wave VII, an ongoing consumer tracking study conducted with research partner ConStat. Among consumers surveyed, 90 percent use search engines, 48 percent use Internet Yellow Pages, 24 percent use vertical sites, and 42 percent use comparison shopping sites.

Slow job creation continues to drag on the economy, according to the Consumer Reports Index for March. This month's findings show that, although the tide of job losses has been stemmed, the level of job creation needed to fuel a consumer recovery has not developed.

Americans' confidence in their ability to retire appears to be stabilizing, now that the economic volatility of the recession has abated, but their self-described preparations for retirement continue to erode, according to the 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) released by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Mathew Greenwald and Associates, a market research firm.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is currently 4.76 percent, down four basis points from 4.80 percent compared to this same time last week. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fluctuated between 4.76 and 4.82 during the past week.