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The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had improved in November, increased further in December. The Index now stands at 64.5 (1985=100), up from 55.2 in November. The Present Situation Index increased to 46.7 from 38.3. The Expectations Index rose to 76.4 from 66.4.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.S. increased 0.5 percent in November to 118.0 (2004 = 100), following a 0.9 percent increase in October, and a 0.1 percent increase in September.

comScore reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 48 days of the November – December 2011 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, nearly $32 billion has been spent online, marking a 15-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week (week ending Dec. 18), led by four individual days surpassing $1 billion in sales, reached an all-time record of $6.3 billion in online retail spending, up 14 percent from the corresponding week last year. The final shopping weekend before Christmas reached $1.04 billion to rank as the second heaviest weekend of online spending on record.

PriceGrabber®, a part of Experian, just released additional results of its third winter holiday shopping survey, revealing how consumers plan to use mobile shopping applications this holiday season. According to the survey, 39 percent of consumers have shopping-related apps on a smartphone, 26 percent do not, and 35 percent do not own a smartphone. Eighty-four percent of the consumers who have shopping-related apps indicated that they plan to use their apps to help save money when purchasing holiday gifts. Conducted from Oct. 18 to Oct. 26, 2011, the survey includes responses from 3,574 U.S. online shopping consumers.

comScore reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 32 days of the November – December 2011 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $18.7 billion has been spent online, marking a 15-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week saw three individual days eclipse $1 billion in spending, led by Cyber Monday, which became the heaviest online spending day on record at $1.25 billion. Tuesday, November 29 reached $1.12 billion, while Wednesday, November 30 reached $1.03 billion. These three billion dollar spending days currently rank as three of the four heaviest online spending days in history (with Cyber Monday 2010 being the other).

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index™ (ETI) increased in November to 103.7, up from the revised figure of 102.42 in October. The November figure is up 6.4 percent from the same month a year ago.

comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 20 days of the November – December 2011 holiday season, as well as its official spending forecast for the season. For the holiday season-to-date, $9.7 billion has been spent online, marking a 14-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. Wednesday, November 16 has been the heaviest online spending day of the season to date at $688 million.

Cyber Monday broke online sales records last year, and according to CareerBuilder's latest survey, the trend may be poised to continue. Fifty percent of American workers plan to spend time holiday shopping online at work this season – on par with 52 percent last year. Of these workers, 34 percent will spend one hour or more shopping (up from 27 percent in 2010) and 16 percent will spend two or more hours (up from 13 percent in 2010).

From December 2010 to March 2011 the number of gross job gains from opening and expanding private sector establishments was 6.3 million, a decrease of 671,000 jobs compared to the previous quarter, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the same period, gross job losses from closing and contracting private sector establishments fell to 6.1 million, the lowest level since this series began in September 1992.

Employers in the private nonfarm sector initiated 1,226 mass layoff events in the third quarter of 2011 that resulted in the separation of 184,493 workers from their jobs for at least 31 days, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Total extended mass layoff events decreased over the year from 1,370 to 1,226, and associated worker separations fell from 222,357 to 184,493. Events and separations reached their lowest third quarter levels since 2007. Both events and separations have decreased over the year for eight consecutive quarters. Third quarter 2011 layoff data are preliminary and are subject to revision.