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Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace are currently 4.81 percent, down six basis points from 4.87 percent at this time last week. The 30-year fixed mortgage rates hovered at or below 4.80 percent for most of the past weekend and neared 4.75 percent on Monday.

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 over the three month period between September and December 2009. 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 the most popular forms of content and activity accessed via mobile device. The report found Motorola to be the top handset manufacturer with 23.5 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 41.6 percent market share.

Not only has the recession left small business owners financially devastated, but a new survey has found that their physical and mental health has also suffered.

Thousands of employers are turning to human resources outsourcing firms and Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) as a way to cut employment costs, reduce HR risks and improve efficiencies.

Though economic and financing challenges still exist, positive pipeline metrics seen in the second half of 2009 could signal a rebound of deal activity in the US Entertainment & Media (E&M) industry in 2010, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) Transaction Services 2010 US Entertainment & Media M&A Insights report.

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI)™ rose in January for the fifth consecutive month. The index now stands at 93.2, up 1 percent from December's 92.3, but still down 0.7 percent compared to January 2009.

Many U.S. employers are increasingly losing confidence in their workers’ ability to save for retirement and, as a result, plan to step up their efforts this year to help workers maximize their 401(k) savings, according to a new survey by Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing services company. High on employers’ priority lists in 2010: restoring company 401(k) matches that were suspended or reduced during the market downfall and adding automated tools and investment features that take the guesswork out of saving and investing.

When asked to say, without being prompted or shown a list, what “are the two most important issues for government to address,” more people (45%) mention healthcare than any other issue. However, many more people, in total, mention either the economy (32%) or employment or jobs (31%). No other issue comes close.

The Monster Employment Index edged down one point in January, while the annual rate of decline moderated to an almost-flat 3 percent, as the Index appears close to emerging from a period of negative annual growth that spans back to January 2008.

Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased at a 6.2 percent annual rate during the fourth quarter of 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. This gain in productivity reflects increases of 7.2 percent in output and 1.0 percent in hours worked. (All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally adjusted annual rates.) This was the first quarterly increase in hours worked since the second quarter of 2007 (0.9 percent).