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Most everyone has felt it at some point. The commercial on television ends and there is still uncertainty about exactly what product or service that commercial was selling. You're not alone in that feeling of confusion. Three-quarters of Americans (75%) say they have found a commercial on TV confusing. One in five (21%) often find commercials on television confusing while 55% say they find commercials confusing not very often. Just 14% say they never find commercials on television confusing and 11% do not watch commercials on TV.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released the first-ever nationwide and state-by-state “Transportation Performance Indexes” which show a significant decline over the last five years in how America’s transportation infrastructure is serving the needs of domestic commerce, international trade and the overall U.S. economy. The annual index is the first of its kind designed to look over time at how U.S. transportation infrastructure is serving the needs of the U.S. economy and business community.

Many American investors are looking beyond their current financial stress and expecting that big economic improvements are just around the corner. The majority of Americans are stressed about their finances (68 percent), but portfolios are improving, and more than half (55 percent) of investors think that the economy will fully recover in two years or fewer.

Employers took 1,546 mass layoff actions in August that resulted in the separation of 150,192 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 August decreased by 63 from the prior month, while the number of associated initial claims increased by 6,489. In August, 403 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 46,540 initial claims.

Supported by substantial stimulus measures, the US economy has started to grow again after one of the most severe economic crises it has faced since the Great Depression, according to the OECD’s latest US Economic Survey.

Although many unemployed workers are eager to start earning a paycheck, some are holding out for better offers. A new survey from Personified, CareerBuilder's talent consulting arm, shows that 17 percent of unemployed workers have received at least one job offer since they have become unemployed. Of these workers, 92 percent rejected the offer. Fifty-four percent reported the pay was more than 25 percent below the salary they earned in their most recent position.

Small business owners are much more pessimistic than average voters about the national economy and hold negative views of Washington's attempts at solving problems, according to a national bipartisan poll conducted by Bill McInturff and Doug Schoen for the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR). The survey also shows that small business owners are among the most motivated about this fall's elections.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.S. increased 0.3 percent, The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) remained unchanged and The Conference Board Lagging Economic Index® (LAG) increased 0.2 percent in August.

Member States still perform well in writing Internal Market rules into national law, but the positive trend of recent years has stalled according to the European Commission's latest Internal Market Scoreboard. On average 0.9% of Internal Market Directives for which the implementation deadline has passed are not currently written into national law, up from 0.7% in March 2010. This means that Member States are still in line, but only just, with the 1.0% target set by Heads of State and Government in 2007. As regards application of EU law, there has been a slight fall in the number of infringements compared to six months ago. Recognising the importance of citizens' mobility in the Internal Market, a section of the scoreboard focuses on the effective application of EU rules in the area of mutual recognition of professional qualifications.

As American consumers continue to add private label products to their shopping carts, consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail executives recently surveyed by Deloitte agree: this is a trend that is here to stay. In Deloitte's new "The Battle for Brands in a World of Private Labels" study, when asked how market share of store brands will change in the United States by 2012, 77 percent of CPG executives and 90 percent of retail executives surveyed indicated it will increase or increase significantly.