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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 average period ending November 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 ages 13 and older, and reviewed the most popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber’s primary mobile phone. The November report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 24.5 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 33.5 percent market share.

The December CBIZ Small Business Employment Index, which is designed to serve as a barometer for hiring trends among companies with 300 or fewer employees, showed its largest percentage employee increase since June of last year. The uptick is an indication that hiring has improved and confidence among small business owners is on the rise.

The outlook for the Canadian banking sector is stable for 2011 as most institutions remain on solid footing after weathering the past few years better than banks in many other developed markets, according to Fitch Ratings.

comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, reported that retail e-commerce spending for the entire November – December 2010 holiday season reached $32.6 billion, marking a 12-percent increase versus last year and an all-time record for the season.

Online advertised vacancies were basically unchanged as they dipped 9,400 in December to 4,447,800, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine™ (HWOL) Data Series. The nation’s Supply/Demand rate stood at 3.39 unemployed for every advertised vacancy in November (the last available unemployment data) - a figure that is down from a peak of 4.73 in October 2009. Nationally, there are 10.7 million more unemployed than advertised vacancies.

US stocks in 2011 will record a third straight year of double digit percentage returns, the first time this has occurred in more than a decade, according to Robert C. Doll, Chief Equity Strategist for Fundamental Equities at BlackRock, Inc.

MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, a macroeconomic report tracking national retail and services sales, provided summary results for performance of specific U.S. retail industries in December, 2010. Report shows that growth in December sales was robust across many retail categories, further building on November’s positive results, with some performing at better than pre-recession levels.

The budding recovery in IT investment that started to take shape in 2010 appears to be heading for an uptick in 2011 as small businesses report a positive outlook on IT investment for their organizations.

After reaching a 3-year high in November, consumer confidence slid in December, as more Americans rated current economic conditions and the state of their personal finances as poor, according to the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor.

Corporate executives responsible for overseeing the retirement plans offered to their employees identified retirement readiness as one of their top priorities this past year, according to the 10th Annual 401(k) Benchmarking Survey conducted by Deloitte, the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists (ISCEBS). Plan sponsors further called out retirement readiness as the issue they needed the most help with from retirement plan service providers.