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Continued signs of retail weakness contributed to a 13 basis point (bp) increase in delinquencies, as the Fitch Ratings U.S. CMBS loan delinquency index rose to 0.64% in November 2008. The increase is consistent with Fitch's expectation that delinquencies will continue to rise, reaching approximately 2% by year-end 2009.

In November, employers took 2,328 mass layoff actions, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single employer; the number of workers involved totaled 224,079 on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Regional and state unemployment rates were generally higher in November. Overall, 37 states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, 5 states registered decreases, and 8 states had no change, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported.

Fitch Ratings says that the credit outlook for the UK energy and utility sector will remain stable during 2009, as negative factors such as higher funding costs are balanced by positive factors such as lower wholesale prices.

Young people in Japan are finding it increasingly hard to get stable jobs and the Japanese authorities should expand vocational training schemes and increase social security coverage for young non-regular workers in order to help them, according to a new OECD publication.

With a view that the global economy is experiencing a severe recession, Fitch is forecasting the steepest GDP decline in the major advanced economies since World War II. The financial profile of the U.S. consumer is expected to remain stressed in 2009, as weak employment trends coupled with depressed real estate and equity prices continue to undermine consumer confidence.

comScore, Inc. released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties for November 2008 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. The official start to the holiday shopping season unleashed droves of Americans on retail sites, propelling several categories, including Toys, Consumer Electronics and Department Stores, to double-digit traffic gains in November.

With the grim economic news continuing to pour in, one might expect the average American worker to be too focused on keeping his or her job to think about taking time off this holiday season. But a new survey sponsored by The Workforce Institute™ at Kronos® Incorporated and conducted by Harris Interactive, finds that the vast majority of employees plan to forge ahead with their holiday time off requests as planned - some even plan to take more time off this year than in the past.

There’s little doubt that the current economic environment is fostering fear and uncertainty in the workplace, especially regarding changing jobs. Results of an ongoing survey by MRINetwork, one of the world’s largest search and recruitment organizations, revealed that employees are just as likely to be looking for a new job today as they were two years ago.

With a recession at hand, HR departments face increasing pressure to make the correct decision when evaluating new hires and ensuring that their internal hiring and immigration processing systems and associated expenses are under control. While the continued economic downturn will reduce hiring across the board, many companies still will require international workers for hard-to-fill openings including IT programmers, design engineers, doctors, nurses and other highly specialized positions. Now, more than ever, organizations must implement efficient hiring and immigration processing systems in order to optimize productivity and cost-effectiveness.