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In an attempt to get shoppers to purchase gifts online that will be delivered by the Christmas holiday, many online retailers are cutting shipping costs today and guaranteeing on-time delivery for shoppers who looking for deals and consolidating debt this season.

According to FreeShippingDay.com, which compiles a list of retailers who are shedding their shipping costs for one day on December 17 this year, the purpose of the online shopping event is to reward consumers who ship online with "free shipping for doing their last minute Christmas shopping at home."

The event, which CBS News said first occurred last year, is also a chance for online retailers to increase their sales figures further into the shopping season. Traditionally, many online retailers experience a dive in sales as December progressed because of consumer fears that gifts won’t arrive in time for the holidays.

There are 741 online retailers offering no shipping charges on any of their products for this year’s iteration of Free Shipping Day, ranging from mainstream websites such as BrooksBrothers.com to independent shops such as MagellansToyShop.com

This year’s Free Shipping Day comes in the middle of a shopping season that has seen an increase in online sales. According to a recent comScore survey, retail e-commerce spending has hit $20.7 billion as of December 13 this holiday season, a 4 percent increase over 2008’s online spending figures.

In another sign the unemployment situation is affecting many Americans in the midst of consumer credit counseling as they look for work, a new study has found that employment at airline carriers is at its lowest level in nearly20 years.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, American scheduled passenger airlines had 3.7 percent fewer workers in October 2009 than they had at the same time one year earlier. The decline marked the 16th consecutive time that year-over-year levels of full-time employees for the airlines had declined.

Of the seven major airlines, all decreased their employment figures over that timespan except for Delta Airlines, which saw its employment rise by 7.3 percent. The major airlines also accounted for 68.2 percent of the workers hired in the industry, with the remaining workers being employed at either low-cost or regional carriers.

Additionally, the 379,800 workers that the BTS reported were employed in the industry in October was the lowest total amount since 1993.

The employment figures for the airline industry were released the same day that the International Air Transport Association issued grim news for the industry’s prospects in 2010. Revising previous data, the association broadened the expected global net losses in the airline industry from $3.8 to $5.6 billion. It maintained that net losses would total $11 billion.

While a majority of Americans chose to remain at home during the Thanksgiving holiday to save money, those who did venture out actually spent more than they did in 2008, according to a new survey.

According to Ipsos Marketing’s travel and tourism division, despite the reputation of Thanksgiving being the biggest travel day of the year, 79 percent of Americans said they had no plans to travel over the holiday weekend, one percent higher than data taken during the 2008 holiday.

Perhaps fittingly, only 19 percent of Americans said they planned on travelling out of town for the holiday, down slightly from 2008’s figures.

However, despite the supposed attempts by many to consolidate debt as the holiday season gets underway, the survey also found that those who did decide to travel were more willing to spend money than in previous years. Thirty-five percent of travelers said they were going to spend more money in 2009 than during the previous year. By comparison, only 13 percent said they planned on spending less while out on the road.

"In the current economic times Americans are finding ways to continue to connect with loved ones and in some cases the pull-out couch or long car ride is the necessary sacrifice," said Dave Pierzchala, the Vice President of Ipsos’ travel team.

In surveying those who traveled for the holiday, 17 percent said they planned on driving instead of paying for a flight, while 22 percent planned on staying with family or friends instead of a hotel.

A head of the Federal Reserve has come out with a somewhat lukewarm message regarding the U.S. economy, stating that while there has been improvement that it was still far from being fully recovered.

While speaking at a World Leaders Forum last Monday, president and CEO of the Fed’s New York branch William C. Dudley said that while the economy was working towards a recovery and the worst conditions were seemingly over, it was still weak and would take time to fully bounce back.

"The recession now appears to be over, but the economy is still weak and the unemployment rate is much too high," Dudley said. He added that because of that, the Fed would likely keep interest rates "exceptionally low for an extended period."

Dudley also admitted that, in retrospect, the Fed could have done more to help and limit the financial crisis than it actually did, and credited the Obama Administration’s federal stimulus package with helping to "ward off a total collapse of our financial system."

However, he added that the Fed would learn from its past mistakes. Noting that some of the bailouts provided to banks had angered many consumers as they struggled through debt counseling, he said that the Fed and other regulators had committed to move effectively in order to prevent the same oversights from leading to another crisis.

Economic experts are predicting that, even as the economy recovers as the year comes to an end, significant improvements in the unemployment rate will likely not come until at least the spring

Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union, National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers said those hoping for a significant decline in the unemployment rate to help their debt management practices would not see anything substantial until the second quarter of 2009.

"Most professional forecasters expect job growth by spring and I think that’s a reasonable judgment in an uncertain world," he said.

The slow recovery, he added, would occur despite the goal of lowering the unemployment rate being one of the Administration’s top priorities through the stimulus package.

"The number of projects under the program… is going to be about twice as great over the next six months as it was over the last six months," he added.

After hitting 10.2 percent – its highest point since March 1983 – in October, the unemployment rate declined slightly in November, dropping 0.02 percentage points to hit 10 percent, the U.S. Department of Labor reported.

Speaking to ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Summers offered somewhat more positive news, stating that "everyone agrees the recession is over" after seeing Novembers figures. However, White House Economic Advisor Christina Romer disagreed, telling NBC’s Meet the Press she would not declare the recession over until the unemployment rate was closer to 5 percent.

Consumers seem to slowly be improving their finances in 2009 through bill consolidation and better money management, as fewer families fell behind on their auto loan payments when compared to previous years.

According to Experian Automotive, the rate of loan payments that fell at least 30 days into delinquency rose by 5.8 percent from between the third quarters of 2008 and 2009. Despite the increase, the year-to-year rate change and was much less severe than the rate of delinquencies from year-to-year was not as significant as the 9.5 percent jump seen between Q3 2007 and Q3 2008.

"While higher-than-average delinquency rates are still with us, and may be for some time, the fact that the rate of increase is slowing is definitely some positive news for an industry that hasn’t had much as of late," said Melinda Zabritski, director of Automotive Credit for Experian Automotive. "These slowing delinquency rates, along with several other trends we are now seeing, should provide some cautious optimism for the market."

The study also found that average credit scores needed for new vehicle loans had from 762 in the Q3 2008 to 775 in Q3 2009 while average scores for used car loans jump from 670 to 684 respectively.

According to workforce management company Kronos, the Retail Labor Index increased to 3.87 percent in November. The rate was the highest the index has seen in 2009, and roughly translates to mean that nearly four hirings occurred for every 100 applications received at retailers.

The survey also found that there were 49,412 hires in November, 8.49 percent more than were seen in October, a decrease of 317,088 applications turned in over the course of he month

While Dr. Robert Yarex, Kronos’ chief economist, called the rise in the index a "positive sign" for retailers as well as those who are consolidating debt and looking for work, he added that it was not necessarily indicative of the index growing further in 2010.

"Since 2006, the level of applications received by retailers from September through November each year has increased, but the cumulative number of hirings made over the same period has decreased," he said. "This indicates that retailers are expecting the 2009 winter holiday retail season to be weaker than each of the previous three years, and in response, delayed their surge in holiday season hiring by two weeks as compared with previous years."

Regardless of the long-term results, the nation’s employment situation did improve slightly as the holiday season got underway. The unemployment rate declined 0.2 percentage points to 10 percent in November after hitting its highest point in 26 years the month prior.