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OECD composite leading indicators (CLIs) for July 2010 point to clearer signs of a moderation in the pace of expansion compared to last month’s assessment. The CLI for the OECD area decreased by 0.1 point in July 2010.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.K. increased 0.2 percent in July to 103.4 (2004=100), following gains of 0.5 percent in June and 0.4 percent in May. Five of the seven components made positive contributions to the index in July.

In August, the total value added of the industrial enterprises above designated size was up 13.9 percent year-on-year, or 0.5 percentage point higher than that in July 2010; in the first eight months of this year, it was up 16.6 percent year-on-year, which was down by 0.4 percentage point over that in the first seven months of 2010.

A new Financial Times/Harris Poll finds that immigration is widely unpopular in the United States and in all of the five largest countries in Europe. The survey asked about immigration generally and not about illegal immigration. Majorities in four of the countries and pluralities in the other two believe that immigration makes it harder to find new jobs. Majorities in three countries and over 40% in the other three believe it has a bad effect on education. Majorities in four of the countries and 40% or more in the other two think it has a bad effect on health care services. Americans, even though they live in what has been described as a nation of immigrants are not, in general, any less hostile to immigration than Europeans.

How have the changes in our society affected marriage rates and the proportion of births outside marriage over the last twenty years? How much does government spend as a proportion of GDP, and how is this spending split between social protection, health and education? What are the recent developments in lifelong learning? The answers to these questions and to many more can be found in the 14th edition of the Eurostat yearbook, published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

The average person born in the latter years of the baby boom held 11 jobs from age 18 to age 44, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. More than three-fifths of these jobs were held from ages 18 to 27.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Japan decreased 0.1 percent, while The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) increased 0.6 percent in July.

The annual growth rate of the outstanding amount of debt securities issued by euro area residents decreased from 3.7% in June 2010 to 3.4% in July. For the outstanding amount of quoted shares issued by euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 1.8% in July 2010, compared with 1.9% in June.

The worldwide mobile operating system (OS) market will be dominated by Symbian and Android, as the two OSs will account for 59.8 percent of mobile OS sales by 2014, according to Gartner, Inc.

The world economic recovery may be slowing faster than previously anticipated, according the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Assessment. Growth in the Group of Seven countries is expected to be around 1½ per cent on an annualized basis in the second half of 2010 compared with the previous estimate of around 1¾ per cent in the OECD’s May Economic Outlook.