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U.S. households are expected to spend an average of $384 on Christmas gifts this holiday season, slightly less than last year’s estimate of $390, The Conference Board reports.

Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in October. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia recorded unemployment rate decreases, 14 states registered rate increases, and 17 states had no rate change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia posted unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier, 16 states reported increases, and 5 states had no change. The national jobless rate was unchanged in October at 9.6 percent but was down from 10.1 percent a year earlier.

Employers took 1,651 mass layoff actions in October that resulted in the separation of 148,059 workers, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single employer. The number of mass layoff events in October increased by 121 from the prior month, and the number of associated initial claims increased by 9,839. In October, 356 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 37,438 initial claims; both figures increased over the month.

Consumer confidence in the overall economy and in technology spending both improved in November to the highest points of the year, according to the latest figures released today by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®.

As Thanksgiving weekend officially kicks off the holiday season, one tradition that is returning this year is online shopping at the office. Cyber Monday, a term coined by the National Retail Federation for the first Monday after Thanksgiving, will likely be a busy day for Internet use at work. Twenty-nine percent of workers say they have holiday shopped online at work, on par with previous years. Of those planning to shop online this year, 27 percent will spend one hour or more. More than one-in-10 (13 percent) said they will spend two hours or more. Workers should be mindful of their companies' electronic communications policies, though, as nearly half (47 percent) of companies said that they monitor Internet and e-mail use of employees. This year's survey included more than 2,400 employers and more than 3,100 workers.

With the Congressional elections in his rear view mirror, President Obama looks ahead to working with a Republican House of Representatives with a positive job approval rating of 38% and a negative rating of 62%. This is not much different than where his ratings stood right before the election when 37% of Americans gave him positive ratings and 63% gave him negative marks for overall job he was doing.

The number of shoppers who say they expect to spend less this holiday season has fallen 10 percentage points from this time last year, according to early data from the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor. The news, coupled with increased spending intentions on the part of younger and more affluent consumers, may signal happier holidays for retailers this season.

Stores are decked for the holidays and television ads for the latest toys, gifts and gadgets have hit the air. As we inch closer to the holidays, over half of Americans (53%) say they are planning to purchase toys as gifts this year while two in five (40%) say they will not purchase toys and 7% are not sure. As might be expected, almost three-quarters of those in a household with children (73%) say they will purchase toys as gifts this year.

While shoppers are looking for the hottest deals from online retailers to kick off their holiday shopping, cybercriminals are also looking to "score big" – by stealing shoppers' personal and financial information. This year, cyber thieves got off to an early start and Norton expects them to continue their nefarious holiday scams.

comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. Google Sites led the explicit core search market in October with 66.3 percent of searches conducted, an increase of 0.2 share points from September 2010.