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In the first two months of this year, the total value added of the industrial enterprises above designated size was up 20.7 percent year-on-year, it was 16.9 percentage points higher than that a year ago, or 2.2 percentage point higher than that 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.

Strengthening our economies for the future in key areas such as jobs, competition and taxation must now replace crisis management, says the OECD’s latest Going for Growth report.

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.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Japan increased 1.8 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) increased 1.1 percent in January.

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.

Despite the economic downturn, the global broadband market remained healthy in 2009. Since more people are buying laptops, notebooks and PCs, home networking is becoming essential. At the same time, the demand for high speed broadband is increasing with the popularity of services such as IPTV and online gaming. New market data from ABI Research shows that global broadband service revenue has continued increasing over the past few years regardless of the recessionary pressures.

Very small companies could be exempted from having to draw up annual accounts, after MEPs approved changes to EU accounting rules in Strasbourg on Wednesday. It would be up to each Member State to grant such exemptions, depending on the impact the directive would have in that country. Companies would in any case still have to keep records of their business transactions and financial situation.

The European Commission welcomes the adoption at the United Nations in Geneva of the first international regulation on safety of both fully electric and hybrid cars. This landmark decision will facilitate the early introduction of safe and clean electric cars onto our roads. The technical regulation adopted at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) ensures that cars with a high voltage electric power train, such as hybrid and fully electric vehicles, are as safe as conventional cars. Hybrid and electric cars are increasingly available on the market and are very promising in terms of making road transport clean and energy-efficient.