Happy Monday Morning! This week’s edition of the Monday Morning Personal Finance News features stories on unpaid jobs, goodbye debit rewards programs and better, higher-paying summer jobs.

• Are you willing to work for free? An increasing number of unemployed Americans are in order to boost their resume, gain workplace experience and more.
• If you don’t already hate the big banks, here’s some news that might put you over the edge: Wells Fargo, SunTrust and Chase are nixing their debit card reward programs; Citi is researching the possibility.
• Good news for those planning on getting a summer job – there are likely to be more summer jobs available this year and at a higher hourly pay rate.
• Could the housing market be worse than experts think? This story examines the upward drift of a key indicator for housing sales in the country.
• Speaking of the crappy housing market, if you’re underwater on your mortgage there may be a little glimmer of hope for you – if you believe that bank’s care about keeping you in your house.
• Check out this slideshow on financial infidelity and how it can destroy a marriage.

Photo: bgottsab/Flickr

Check out this CNNMoney.com video on how baby boomers are faring during the job market and how the (slowly) recovering economy will change things.

Happy Monday Morning! I’ve spent the last week taking care of my sick daughter and now my sick self so I got behind in what is going on in personal finance land. I was surprised to see the unemployment rate drop to 9% and I was surprised to see the stock market up more than 2% for the week. Those are just a few of the topics I’ve chosen for this week’s Monday Morning Personal Finance News.

• Although we only added 36,000 new jobs in January 2011, the unemployment rate dropped to 9%.
• The first week of February was good for the Dow Jones; it closed on Friday up 2.3% for the week.
• This post title made me laugh – BofA gets serious on foreclosures – BofA getting serious on anything is a joke (in my opinion) because it is one of the most disorganized financial institutions I’ve ever done business with.
• Speaking of disorganized financial institutions, a new survey reveals that only 26% of Americans trust the financial system.
• Check out Slate’s article on marriage and money – Our Newlywed Money Dilemma. If you’re married, did you combine your finances? We did!
• If you’re not yet married, check out April Dykman’s article The Cost of Love on Get Rich Slowly. Boy, dating can be expensive!
• A special shout out to Kim at the Travels of Kimbopolo – she’s cheered me along on my get out of debt journey by commenting on my blog posts. She recently updated her savings goal and is now 62.5% towards meeting her goal of $20,000 – congrats Kim!!!

See you next week!

Yesterday I posted a list of Fortune magazine’s 15 Companies That Have Never Had a Layoff. In the post I teased today’s topic – 25 top-paying companies. Here is a list of 25 companies that pay well, the average total annual compensation and the position that receives this pay.

1. Salesforce.com – $318,323 – Senior Account Executive
2. Bingham McCutchen – $219,888 – Associate
3. Alston & Bird – $182,681 – Associate
4. Perkins Cole – $182,544 – Associate
5. Devon Energy – $172,575 – Engineer
6. Millenium – The Takeda Oncology Company – $166,354 – Sr. Oncology Sales Specialist
7. Goldman Sachs – $160,000 – Analysts, Program Analysts, Associates etc
8. EOG Resources – $158,008 – Engineer
9. Brocade Communication Systems – $156,508 – Software Engineer
10. Boston Consulting Group – $154,051 – Consultant
11. NetApp – $149,985 – Technical Staff
12. SRC/SRCTec – $145,251 – Software Engineer
13. Scripps Health – $141,545 – Manager-Director
14. Qualcomm – $134,211 – Engineer, Staff
15. Cisco – $131,716 – Software Engineer IV
16. Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants – $131,234 – Hotel General Manager
17. CH2M Hill – $129,986 – Engineer
18. MITRE – $127,734 – Information Systems Engineer, Lead
19. Johnson Financial Group – $123,926 – SVP Commercial RM
20. Adobe Systems – $123,599 – Computer Scientist, Software Development 4
21. Microsoft – $120,657 – Engineering – Software
22. Baker Donelson – $118,996 – Associate
23. The Everett Clinic – $118,500 – Nurse Practitioner
24. Atlantic Health – $114,868 – Manager
25. Chesapeake Energy – $114,084 – Toolpusher

As you can see this list is primarily composed of lawyers, sales professionals, engineers and technology positions. The good news is, some of these companies are also hiring, in fact they have quite a few open positions. The Boston Consulting Group has 2,000 current openings, NetApp has 2,500 openings, Cisco has 4,591 openings and Adobe Systems has 1,000 openings.

Fortune just released its list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For and SAS came out on top. At the same time that it released its best companies list, Fortune also released a list of 15 companies that have never had a layoff – ever. These are great companies to work for and made it through the most economic recession without laying off any of their employees. If you’re in the market for a new job, check out one of these great companies.

1. SAS
2. Wegmans Food Markets
3. Nugget Market
4. Scottrade
5. Stew Leonard’s
6. The Container Store
7. NuStar Energy
8. QuikTrip
9. Baptist Health South Florida
10. Baker Donelson
11. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
12. Publix Super Markets
13. S.C. Johnson
14. Arkansas Children’s Hospital
15. Darden Restaurants (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc)

Next I’ll examine 25 top-paying companies but here’s a sneak peek: number one on the list is Salesforce.com with an average total pay of $318,823 for year for a Senior Account Executive.

I was researching a web tool earlier and landed on the MoneyWatch site. I saw a link to a story in the sidebar that caught my eye – 10 High Paying Careers With No Future. Of course, I clicked because I wanted to see what types of jobs made this not so prestigious list.

Louise Tutelian compiled this top ten list after consulting the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook 2010-2011. Number one her list was judges. According to the article, “By 2018, the BLS predicts that there will be 700 fewer jobs for judges, magistrate judges, and magistrates, than there were in 2008, thanks mainly to budget cuts. And since the average tenure for a judge is 14 years, turnover is glacial.”

Other careers that will be seeing a decline in employment numbers include insurance underwriters (thanks to advanced software programs), travel agents (think about it, when was the last time you used a travel agent to book your travel) and chemists.

So, before you decide to take out $100,000 or more in student loans to earn your JD with hopes of being a judge, take a step back and think about the long-term prospects in the field. This same advice should be taken for any career. If you justify $50,000 in student loans because you know you can earn $60,000 your first year after graduation, you may find yourself between a rock and a hard place when things don’t pan out.

Now I’m not suggesting you don’t pursue your dreams I’m just saying that it might be wise to put some more thought into financing your education. Check out Zac Bissonnette’s book Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching Off My Parents for creative and realistic ways to pay for college.

Photo: IXQUICK/Flickr

With nearly 15 million unemployed Americans, if you’re out of work and looking for a job, you need to get creative. The same holds true if you want to advance your career by finding a new job. In today’s social media centered world, Twitter is one creative way you can enhance your job search.  Before you delve into Twitter to try to find your next job, read these 6 posts to boost your Twitter job search. Note: The posts will open in a new window.

Twitter Job Search 101 – MSN Careers

“You can gain a wealth of advantages when turning to Twitter for help in the job search. You can research companies and organizations, uncover little-known job leads, connect with recruiters and employers and learn up-to-the-minute news about the industries and employers that interest you.”

How to Use Twitter to Land a Job – U.S. News & World Report

“Follow people who work in your industry or companies that interest you. Interacting and building relationships with people who are already working at those companies may help you uncover job openings that aren’t posted on popular job boards.”

50 Ways To Use Twitter as a Job Search Tool – Applicant

“Everyday more people are using Twitter to find jobs. Not only are people on Twitter to look for jobs but employers are also looking for people to hire. Some are on Twitter specifically to recruit. Twitter can be a very lucrative way to search for a job, get involved with the community and help others out. Use it while you search for jobs in other, more typical ways and you will land the job you have always been looking for.”

HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter – Mashable

“Tough economic times call for innovative approaches. An estimated 51 million people internationally are expected to lose their jobs in 2009, and with the unemployment rate on the rise, how does one find career opportunities fast? One great option is Twitter.”

Although this post is more than a year old, the information is still pertinent to your Twitter job search today.

10 Job Search Examples: Crash and Burn on Twitter – Tim’s Strategy

“It’s a good thing no one is watching. Because I saw a ton of tweets yesterday where someone in a job search was crashing and burning on Twitter.  And I’ll bet I could find a few on Facebook.  Maybe less so on LinkedIn.”

Visit TwitJobSearch

Okay so this isn’t technically an article but TwitJobSearch is a search engine that catalogs job openings posted on Twitter. When I was writing this article the site advertised that 1,012,764 new jobs were posted in the last 30 days and 1,124 in the last hour. Definitely take some time to play around with TwitJobSearch after reading the other articles in this post.

If you still yearn for more information, there is even a book on the topic: The Twitter Job Search Guide: Find a Job and Advance Your Career in Just 15 Minutes a Day.

If you’re in the job-hunting market, have you used Twitter? If so, how have you fared?

This morning the U.S. Department of Labor released the official unemployment summary and the October 2010 unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.6%. For three consecutive months, the unemployment rate has remained steady at this 9.6% figure.

Despite the unchanging unemployment rate, there were 159,000 private sector jobs added during the month, significantly higher than the 60,000 or so that was predicted by economists earlier this week.

Here are a few highlights and lowlights from the report:

• There are still approximately 14.8 million unemployed workers, not counting the 1.2 million discouraged workers
• The unemployment rate among adult women is only 8.1%
• Adult males are facing a 9.7% unemployment rate
• Teenagers aren’t having the best luck finding jobs with a 27.1% unemployment rate
• The retail sector added 28,000 jobs during the month, maybe a surge in preparation for the holiday shopping season?
• Auto dealers added 6,000 jobs
• Food services and drinking establishments added 24,000 new jobs

What is likely frustrating to the nearly 15 million unemployed Americans is the fact that The Great Recession officially ended in the summer of 2009 but the employment recovery is still slowly gaining ground. One has to ask if the midterm elections will have any effect on the nation’s unemployment crisis. CNNMoney.com actually has a poll on the topic active on their site right now:

What effect will the 2010 midterm election have on the economy?

Choices are “Improve it”, “Make it worse” and “No impact”. With 13,566 answers, 39% of respondents feel that the midterm elections will improve the economy, 36% feel the elections will have no impact on it and 25% feel that the midterm elections will make the nation’s economy worse.

What about you? What effect do you think the 2010 midterm election will have on the economy?

Happy Monday Morning! If you were offline over the weekend, you can quickly get caught up with the latest in personal finance news by reading the Monday Morning Personal Finance News post for November 1, 2010. Please note: links will open in a new window.

How to Maximize Savings During Open Enrollment – SmartMoney

Starting Monday, companies around the country will enter “open enrollment,” the short window when employees get to switch their health insurance plans. In addition to regular price increases across the board, anyone shopping for family coverage this year can expect a new slate of expenses. But with calculated plan shopping, a married couple could actually come out ahead.

Seniors going destitute because of credit card bills – Wallet Pop

Credit card debt is something many Americans struggle with, but a new study shows that senior citizens are particularly at risk for crushing debt, so much so that an increasing number are turning to bankruptcy for relief.

According to research done by the University of Michigan Law School, a whopping two-thirds of older Americans say that high credit card debt is a reason behind their choice to file for bankruptcy. In addition, the total credit card debt of senior bankruptcy filers is 50% higher than that of younger people seeking debt relief through bankruptcy.

Inflation? Gary Shilling Says Deflation Is the Real Problem – Daily Finance

Perhaps the greatest debate over the economy this year has been whether the U.S. is in for a period of inflation or deflation. Those who fear inflation point to the recent rise in the price of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities. TIPS, as they are called, are U.S. Government bonds linked to the consumer price index. In an inflationary environment, investors in TIPS benefit.

Housing woes hit job seekers where it hurts – Fortune

Not so long ago, you may recall, plenty of employers were willing to foot the bill for moving expenses, and maybe even compensate you for a loss on your house, if you pulled up stakes to accept a job in a different locale.

These days, as they say in Brooklyn, fuhgeddaboudit.

Demand for executive talent is slowly rising, but not enough to loosen the purse strings for relocation, according to a new study from Chicago outplacement giant Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Top cities for Halloween loot – CNNMoney.com

Real estate website Zillow.com ranked the 20 best cities to trick-or-treat in this Halloween — and then picked the best neighborhoods in each of those towns.

“I usually get too much candy and I don’t eat all of it,” said Seattle native Courtenay, 12. She and her friends scout out the best locations in advance and set their sights on houses that are fully decorated for the holiday.

A new study conducted by staff at the Center for Health and Well-being at Princeton University reveals that the ideal salary is $75,000. This figure was reached after a study of 450,000 responses to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which is a daily survey of 1,000 U.S. Residents. In the survey, respondents were queried about their emotional well-being (measured by questions about emotional experiences the prior day) and life evaluation (using Cantril’s Self-Anchoring Scale).

“Income and education are more closely related to life evaluation, but health, care giving, loneliness, and smoking are relatively stronger predictors of daily emotions. When plotted against log income, life evaluation rises steadily. Emotional well-being also rises with log income, but there is no further progress beyond an annual income of ∼$75,000. Low income exacerbates the emotional pain associated with such misfortunes as divorce, ill health, and being alone. We conclude that high income buys life satisfaction but not happiness, and that low income is associated both with low life evaluation and low emotional well-being.”

The report also shows that individuals living in poverty are more seriously affected by adverse events in their lives. In other words, a family with a $15,000 annual income will have a much stronger reaction to a divorce than a family with a $75,000 annual income.

This difference in experience even extends to normal everyday activities like the weekend. While a person earning $75,000 year is relaxed after a weekend off, a person earning less than $1,000 month doesn’t feel the same level of relaxation after a weekend off. Basically, poverty affects all aspects of one’s life.

The report provides more insightful data, read it for yourself: High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being (PDF).

Photo: borman818/Flickr