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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.

In the construction sector, seasonally adjusted production fell by 1.4% in the euro area (EA17) and by 1.3% in the EU27 in October 2011, compared with the previous month. In September, production decreased by 1.5% and 1.1% respectively. Compared with October 2010, output in October 2011 decreased by 2.8% in the euro area and by 2.0% in the EU27.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Germany increased 0.3 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) increased 0.1 percent in October.

The first estimate for euro area (EA17) trade with the rest of the world in October 2011 gave a 1.1 bn euro surplus, compared with +3.1 bn euro in October 2010. The September 2011 balance was +2.7 bn, compared with +0.3 bn in September 2010. In October 2011 compared with September 2011, seasonally adjusted exports fell by 1.9% and imports by 0.7%.

Hourly labour costs in the euro area (EA17) rose by 2.7% in the year up to the third quarter of 2011, compared with 3.3% for the previous quarter. In the EU27, the annual rise was 2.6% up to the third quarter of 2011, compared with 3.2% for the previous quarter.

For many people today it seems difficult to live without the internet, however a decreasing, but still non-negligible, part of the EU population has never used it. In the EU27, almost three quarters of households had access to the internet in the first quarter of 2011, compared with almost half in the first quarter of 2006. The share of households with broadband internet connections more than doubled between 2006 and 2011, to reach 68% in 2011 compared with 30% in 2006. During the same period, the share of individuals aged 16-74 in the EU27 who had never used the internet decreased from 42% to 24%.

The number of persons employed in both the euro area (EA17) and the EU27 decreased by 0.1% in the third quarter of 2011 compared with the previous quarter, according to national accounts estimates published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In the second quarter of 2011, employment increased by 0.2% in the euro area and by 0.1% in the EU27. These figures are seasonally adjusted.

Euro area annual inflation was 3.0% in November 2011, unchanged compared with October. A year earlier the rate was 1.9%. Monthly inflation was 0.1% in November 2011. EU annual inflation was 3.4% in November 2011, unchanged compared with October. A year earlier the rate was 2.3%. Monthly inflation was 0.2% in November 2011.

In October 2011 compared with September 2011, seasonally adjusted industrial production fell by 0.1% in the euro area (EA17) and by 0.2% in the EU27. In September production decreased by 2.0% and 1.5% respectively. In October 2011 compared with October 2010, industrial production increased by 1.3% in both zones.

In the EU27, enterprises use the internet for a variety of purposes, among others, to present information on a website, offer online shopping facilities to customers and interact with public authorities. In the EU27, 95% of enterprises had access to the internet in January 2011. The share of enterprises having a fixed broadband connection to access the internet grew slightly from 84% in 2010 to 87% in 2011. On the other hand, the use of mobile broadband connections by enterprises in the EU27 increased significantly in the same period, from 27% to 47%.