  We report on the calculation of NNLO corrections to the 3-jet cross section
and related event shape distributions in electron-positron annihilation. The
corrections are sizable for all variables, however the magnitude of the
corrections is substantially different for different observables. We observe
that inclusion of the NNLO corrections yields a considerably better agreement
between theory and experimental data both in shape and normalization of the
event shape distributions in the region where the perturbative result is
expected to hold. A new extraction of $\alpha_{s}$ using the event shape
variables up to NNLO yields a considerably better consistency between the
observables indicating a stabilization of the perturbative corrections at this
order.
