Manpower Group

Manpower Group's worldwide survey of employers found a huge jump in U.S. employers saying they were having trouble filling open jobs.

With 13 million unemployed people seeking work in this country, it would seem like anyone who wants to hire someone would have little difficulty doing so.

But that’s not what many employers are saying.

More than half of U.S. employers surveyed by the staffing firm Manpower Group last year said they were having trouble filling job openings because they couldn't find qualified workers. That’s a huge 38 percentage point jump from 2010, when only 14 percent said they were having trouble filling positions.

Economists and labor experts say that in some industries, there is a legitimate talent shortage: There simply aren't enough workers with the skills needed to do the jobs available.

But some also think there are other factors that are making it difficult for employers to connect with the right employees.

“Employers have been spoiled by the recession,” said Melanie Holmes, a vice president with Manpower Group.

Holmes explained that the nation’s high unemployment rate left many recruiters feeling they didn’t have to look very hard to find a great candidate, and they could skimp on money or benefits.

Employers also may not be willing to spend the time or money training someone for a highly specialized job, or one that requires unique skills.

“Employers are getting pickier and pickier,” Holmes said. “We want the perfect person to walk through the door.”

Other experts also are seeing evidence that employers just aren’t working as hard to recruit workers, either because they can’t afford to or they don’t feel like they have to. Employers may not be looking far afield because they can't afford moving expenses. Employees may be less willing to move because of the housing bust.

Steven J. Davis, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, regularly tracks “recruiting intensity per vacancy,” which is essentially a measure of how hard employers are looking for the right employees.  He said recruiting intensity declined a lot at the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, and has only recovered partway as the economy has improved.

With the economic recovery still so weak, Davis said, “maybe most employers don’t feel a great sense of urgency in order to increase their ranks.”

Still, Davis said there also are  legitimate, longer-term concerns about American workers’ skills. He thinks one big issue is the swath of mostly male workers who may have made a decent living in low-skill construction or manufacturing jobs but now find they can no longer get a job in those fields. They also don’t have the education or training to get a different job.

“There’s a generation of young men who might have gotten the training to become a health care tech but instead they’re working in the construction sector, and it’s difficult to make that transition if you’re now in your early 30s and you’ve been earning a good living in construction,” he said.

The skills gap is not a new problem.  The Manpower results were part of a global study of about 40,000 employers worldwide. Since 2006, the survey has consistently found that between 30 and 40 percent of employers say they can’t find the right workers for the jobs they have open.

Still, the gap between what employers want and which workers are available isn’t nearly enough to explain the nation’s high unemployment rate, said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute. The unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but is still much higher than before the recession began in 2007.

Shierholz noted that unemployment rates are elevated across most industries and all education levels, which is a sign that there simply aren’t enough jobs to go around.

Hooray! There are fewer of you working part time. 

Boo! More of you are working multiple jobs. 

The job market continues to be a mixed bag for millions of workers across the country. 

On a positive note, when workers are able to clock in more than 35 hours a week after being forced to take fewer hours because of the tough economy, that’s good news for the economy and for employees. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the number of part-time workers in the United States working reduced hours because they couldn’t get full-time work or had their hours reduced by their employers, declined by 371,000 to 8.1 million in December. 

It’s unclear, however, whether this latest government data on part-timers is a light at the end of the crummy labor market tunnel, or continued murkiness. The agency doesn’t track whether those individuals ended up with full-time gigs, or lost their part-time jobs. 

“It could be that some people working part time involuntarily had their hours restored to full time or it could also be that they became unemployed,” said Jim Borbely, an economist for the BLS. 

Despite this, Borbely said the dip in part timers could indicate “a labor picture that’s improving” because the overall number of jobless in December declined to 13.3 million from 14.3 million in the same month last year. 

Not everyone is hopeful. 

“I hate to be a cynic, but I want to look behind the numbers,” said Ellen Ernst Kossek, a human resources professor at Michigan State University’s School of Human Resources & Labor Relations. “Are they making the same money they did before, or did they take full-time jobs at lower wages. It’s about the quality of those jobs.” 

In addition, she pointed out that more and more employees are taking on multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. “A lot of companies are holding the line on wages for hourly workers and on overtime,” she said, and that’s forced many people to take on additional work. 

More than 7 million Americans were working two or more jobs in December, according to the BLS. That ups from 6.8 million in 2010 and 6 million in 2009. 

“Multiple jobs means increased stress and complexity for workers and that’s not good for health and families,” she maintained. “Longer term, we need better quality jobs, economically.” 

Mark Boster/Reuters

One key issue for the Occupy movement has been the rift between the nation's wealthiest residents and the remaining 99 percent.

More Americans are seeing a significant rift between rich and poor people, with most people saying there is a strong or very strong conflict between those who are wealthy and those who are not.

A survey released Wednesday by Pew Social & Demographic Trends finds that 66 percent of Americans see strong or very strong conflicts between rich and poor people. That’s a 19 percentage point increase over 2009.

Another 23 percent said there was conflict, but it wasn’t very strong.

Only 7 percent of respondents said there is no conflict between wealthy and struggling Americans, according to the survey of more than 2,000 Americans conducted in mid-December.

The strife between rich and poor people is now seen as a bigger issue than other social conflicts, including conflict between immigrants and native-born Americans and tension between black and white Americans, according to the Pew study.

Despite the perception that there is a growing conflict, the Pew report said they did not find clear support for things like government measures to address income inequality.

In addition, people’s perceptions of how the rich get rich have not changed much in recent years.

Pew Social & Demographic Trends

More than 4 in 10 respondents said they think people are wealthy because they were born into wealthy families or know the right people. But a nearly equal percentage said they think they earned their money through hard work, ambition or education.

“While the survey results show a significant shift in public perceptions of class conflict in American life, they do not necessarily signal an increase in grievances toward the wealthy,” the report said.

There’s no question the gap between rich and poor has been a particularly hot topic in recent years.

As millions of Americans have struggled with high unemployment and other lingering effects of the recession, the nation’s median household income has actually fallen slightly.

Meanwhile, the wealth gap between the richest Americans and the rest of the country widened during the recession, which officially ended in 2009.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has been perhaps the most visible sign of people’s frustrations over the gap between rich and poor, prompting national attention and similar protests throughout the country.

Some have focused their attention on the tax system.

In August, Warren Buffett generated a huge national debate when he asked lawmakers to tax the rich more, chastising what he called the “billionaire-friendly Congress” for coddling him and his wealthy friends.

Many elected officials are wealthy themselves. The New York Times noted last month that nearly half of all members of Congress are millionaires, and many Congress members have actually gotten richer in the past six years.

The Republican presidential candidates’ wealth also has been a sensitive issue over the course of their primary campaign.

Mitt Romney, one of the wealthiest presidential candidates in years, has been criticized for being out of touch after gaffes such as jokingly offering fellow candidate Rick Perry a $10,000 bet.

Meanwhile, Romney has taken shots at his rivals’ wealth, last month insinuating that Newt Gingrich was out of touch because he’s “a very wealthy man.”

Related:

The rich got richer and, well, you know the rest

Downturn takes heaviest toll on younger Americans

Getty Images

Twinkies have been around since 1930, but today their manufacturer has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Hostess Brands, the maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, has filed for bankruptcy protection, but it’s unlikely Twinkies will disappear. After all, the crème-filled snack cake has been around for more than 80 years. There was a time when no self-respecting American mom would dream of sending her children off to school without a Twinkie in their lunchboxes.

Still, things have surely changed since I went to work for Continental Baking Company (which today has morphed into Hostess Brands). In those days the company, which also made Wonder Bread and other Hostess snacks, was part of the mighty conglomerate ITT, reporting directly to its CEO.  It operated 66 bakeries throughout the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii. Twinkies were as well-known a national brand as Ford or Coke, and there were more Wonder Bread and Twinkie trucks on the road than there were brown UPS trucks. All over America, schoolchildren visited Twinkie bakeries with their teachers and stared in awe as those yellow cakes shot down conveyers like machine-gun bullets.

Those were heady days for Continental, and Twinkies were its star performer. I had a Twinkie-yellow Cadillac convertible and a Twinkie-yellow ski boat, both with white tops. I loved Twinkies. Everybody did. How could this wonderfully tasty American icon fall so far? I think the quality has diminished since my day.

With dozens of bakeries scattered across the country, quality control was crucial: Every Twinkie had to look and taste exactly like every other Twinkie produced in every other Hostess bakery. To achieve that, every day each bakery manager and his team (along with any executives visiting from corporate headquarters, like me) would examine and taste-test every product, down to counting the number of cherries in each Hostess cherry pie.

Hostess was a success back then because its quality control was superb. Every product had a very short shelf life: just two or three days. Whatever didn’t sell by then was removed from shelves and returned to its bakery, where it was sold from the bakery’s thrift stores (the part of the business I was most involved with) at a reduced price. Thrift-store sales were huge, and if there weren’t enough returns to meet demand, we filled the gap with fresh product; we didn’t want customers traveling to the store to find empty shelves.

By the time Continental Baking was acquired by Interstate Bakeries Corporation (today Hostess Brands) in 1995, I had changed jobs, but I watched with interest as shelf lives were extended with preservatives and formulas were changed – even the formula for Twinkies, which had been sacrosanct in my day.

And Twinkies have changed from when I used to taste-test them, no question about that. The soft, creamy filling of yore is neither as soft or as creamy as it was then. The yellow sponge cake comes close, but it's not as fresh-tasting. And that is no surprise, because today's Twinkies have a 14-day shelf life, so of course there is a lot more preservative in each Twinkie.

The treat beloved by baby boomers has changed to something not as good. And that may have much to do with Hostess’s current financial woes.

Dick Schindler is a retired supermarket executive who tasted a lot of Twinkies during his time at Continental Baking. His son Rick is a TODAY.com writer/editor.

More on Twinkies:

• Twinkie sushi? Try these little cake concoctions 
• Gulp! Take a gander at a Twinkie’s 37 or so ingredients
• Turn Twinkies, Ho Hos, Cheez Doodles into ‘gourmet’ treats
• Make your own Twinkies with this recipe

Today Money financial expert David Bach joined us for a live Web chat Wednesday to answer your questions.

Here’s one of his answers to questions from the live chat. (See below for the full Q&A and video of David’s TV appearance this morning.)

Janine asked:

“Just came into enough money to pay off all debt. Should I pay off and quit job I hate and start home based business? Or save? I am 56 and husband would continue working.”

David replied:

“Janine, how nice to come into some money. Send some my way...just kidding! I am all for paying down the debt. Paying down the debt will give you the ultimate freedom. Don't quit your day job however, start your home based business from home in the morning and at night and get it going before you quit your day job (even if you hate it). You are very young, and having that cash flow from your job is huge it will help you fund your next business.”

Here’s the full chat archive and David’s TV appearance:

If you have a question for our TODAY Money experts, submit it here.

To sign up for an e-mail reminder for our next chat, click here.

The 42-inch Vizio E3D420VX offers 3D capability.

By Kara Reinhardt, Cheapism.com

The college football national championship may be behind us, but the biggest game of the year is coming up on Feb. 5. Frugal football fans can watch the Super Bowl on a brand-new LCD TV for less than $600. LCD stands for liquid crystal display, technology that has allowed sleek, space-saving flat-screens to replace conventional cathode-ray-tube TVs. Brands including LG, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Toshiba offer budget models up to 42 inches.  

Man cavers will no doubt want the biggest screen they can afford, but the picture will appear grainy and distorted unless there’s room to sit far enough away. Do a quick calculation to determine the maximum screen size for your space: Measure the distance between the seating area and the spot where the TV will go, then divide by 1.5. For instance, if your favorite recliner is only 48 inches from the wall where you want to mount a new TV, you should look for a 32-inch screen.

One of the most commonly cited specs on an LCD TV is the resolution. The best available is 1080p, which provides the sharpest, clearest high-definition picture. You can easily find a 1080p TV for less than $600. However, keep in mind that the images you see won’t be in high-def unless you have HD channels and/or a Blu-ray player as well.

A screen with 1080p resolution displays 1,080 rows of pixels from top to bottom. The “p” refers to progressive scan, which keeps the screen from flickering when the image refreshes. The refresh rate is measured in hertz, and even low-cost TVs have rates of at least 60 Hz. A higher refresh rate of 120 Hz, available on some budget models, reduces blurring when you’re watching a fast-paced sporting event or playing a video game.

While the best low-priced LCD TVs offer excellent viewing, they simply can’t match the deep black levels that make colors pop on more expensive screens. Pricier models have higher contrast ratios, which represent the difference between the darkest and lightest colors on the screen. Watch out for manufacturers who tout dynamic contrast ratios of 10,000:1 or 100,000:1. The number to look for is the static contrast ratio, which is much lower but more accurate.

Manufacturers often max out settings such as contrast and brightness so a TV will stand out on a retail floor. Factory settings aren’t optimal for a living room, however, so it's best to adjust them.

Below are Cheapism’s top picks for affordable LCD TVs.

• The 42-inch Vizio E3D420VX (starting at $560) boasts 3D capability, which is tough to come by in this price range but perhaps no surprise from a brand known for affordable, feature-rich TVs. This 1080p model has a 120 Hz refresh rate, and reviewers praise the color quality. (Where to buy)
• The 27-inch ViewSonic VT2730 (starting at $300) may not be a big-screen, but it’s inexpensive and ideal for a smaller space. Experts say the picture on this no-frills 1080p TV is sharp and accurate from almost any angle. (Where to buy)
• The 32-inch Sony NSX-32GT1 (starting at $498) incorporates Google TV, so you can browse the web and search for video. Reviewers recommend this 1080p model for the features rather than the image quality. (Where to buy)
• The 42-inch LG 42LK450 (starting at $579) dispenses with extra features but delivers solid performance. Experts appreciate the ability to finely tune each aspect of the picture quality on this 1080p TV. (Where to buy)

More from Cheapism:
Cheap LCD TVs
Snow Blower Reviews
Best All-Season Tires
Best Time to Buy Guide

By Herb Weisbaum, The ConsumerMan

Those Christmas bills are going to arrive very soon and a lot of people who spent more than they planned are going to feel the squeeze.

There’s no need to be embarrassed. You are not alone. Millions of Americans are still deep in debt; trying to deal with family budgets that are stretched to the breaking point. 

Help is available. In many cases, it’s free. You just need to know where to go to make sure you don’t get ripped off by an unscrupulous debt relief company that charges a big upfront fee and can make your situation even worse.

(Related ConsumerMan story: Be wary of promises from debt relief companies)

“You owe it to yourself not to delay,” says Gail Cunningham, vice president of public relations with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC). “Delay only digs a deeper financial hole. Reach out for help and reach out now.” 

The NFCC and the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies (AICCCA) are the two largest organizations representing non-profit consumer counseling services across the country.

“Our goal is to get somebody restored to financial well-being, so they can manage their own personal finances successfully,” Cunningham explains. 

And here's the best part: NFCC and AICCCA member agencies provide debt repayment plans at no-cost or low-cost. 

“We never turn anybody away,” says David Jones, president of AICCCA. “Services are based on what people can afford and if they can’t afford to pay, it’s free.” 

At AICCCA and NFCC member agencies, if there is a fee, it's usually about $20 a month or less. 

How does credit counseling work? You’ll talk with a trained and certified credit counselor who is on your side. They’ll look at your income and living expenses. They’ll find out about your short-term and long-term goals. They’ll help you create a budget and teach you how to prioritize your payments. 

“There is no cookie cutter approach. No drive-through counseling,” Cunningham says. “The counselor will take as much time with you as you need.” 

They can negotiate with your creditors to get monthly payments lowered. They can also get late fees dropped or reduced. This can add up to significant savings which allows you to handle all of your obligations and still pay your debt. 

If you think you need financial help but aren’t quite sure where to start, go to the NFCC or AICCCA websites and find a member agency near you.

Icon Films, Getty Images file

Smart wardrobe? Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, played by Meryl Streep in the newly released film; British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

A new U.K. survey suggests women are taking a decidedly Thatcher-esque tack in order to be taken more seriously in the workplace.

The study, performed by a British office-space company called Business Environment, found that 48 percent of women are willing to lower the tone of their voice (and 23% are lowering their hemlines) to climb the career ladder.

The lady who perfected this strategy? None other than strong-willed former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, subject of the new film, "The Iron Lady," who took lessons to make her voice lower and was a huge fan of below-the-knee skirts on the job.

In November, the BBC reported on a study that found that participants equated lower voices with good leadership qualities. And skipping miniskirts at work can't hurt.

It does seem however, that women do recognize the value of well-placed femininity, with nearly 65 percent confessing that they wear more makeup at the office.

What do you think? Does conservative dress mean workplace success?

Rachel Elbaum is a London-based writer who would happily wear Maggie T.'s signature pearls.

More: Study: Skirts favored over pantsuits in the workplace 
Which stars boast the most influential haircuts of 2011? 

When it comes to Facebook, Gen Yers aren’t taking their professional lives seriously enough.

A new study found that younger workers, aged 18 to 29, have an average of 16 coworker friends on Facebook. Given the way many in this group tend to act on the social networking site, that could end up spelling career doom.

“They are using Facebook primarily for personal (reasons) to connect with friends first, then family but are inadvertently sharing too much with co-workers,” said Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding, which along with Identified.com, an analytics firm, mined the data of four million Gen Y Facebook profiles. They found younger workers had no qualms about friending coworkers; and this group averaged nearly 700 total friends so it’s difficult to figure out what they’re sharing with whom, he added. 

Gen Yers, Schawbel maintained, are more apt than older workers to include profanity and lewd photographs on their Facebook walls because “they started using Facebook in college before it was open to the world.” It’s also seen by many as a social platform, he added, where LinkedIn is more professional.

One study found that younger male Facebook fans, in particular, are a bit less polished on the site. "Males under the age of 30 had a somewhat higher level of profanity, over 55 percent," said Vlad Gorelik, CEO of Reppler, a social media monitoring service.

Bad behavior online won’t sit well with many employers who have upped their monitoring of employees on social networking sites of all sorts as a way to keep tabs on existing workers or weed out job candidates.

A poll by the Society for Human Resource Management to be released later this week found that “39 percent of surveyed employers monitor the social media activities of employees while they are using company-owned computers or handheld devices,” said Jennifer Hughes, a spokeswoman for the group. And, she added, “40 percent of organizations said they had social media policies. Of those organizations with social media policies, 33 percent indicated they had taken disciplinary action against employees who violated their policy in the last 12 months.”

In most cases, employees can't be legally fired, or demoted, for things they write or post on their private social media accounts, unless you’re ranting about working conditions, work for the government, or are covered by a union contract.

Maybe Gen Y doesn’t care what their employers think. This group is more proud of the schools they attended than the companies they work for, the report found; 80 percent of Gen-Y list at least one school entry on their Facebook profiles, while only 36 percent list a job entry.

This group may have little loyalty to their employers given the average tenure at a job is just over two years, the study revealed. But, Schawbel surmised, some Gen Yers may not list their employer because “they don't want their boss or co-workers to find their profiles, yet our study concludes that they are connected to an average of 16 coworkers on Facebook anyway.”

So are Gen Yers confused? “Their intentions are good but they don’t know the ramifications because we’ve never had to deal with this before,” he explained.

Some other findings from the report:

• Top five Gen Y work titles: server, managers, intern, sales associate, and owner.
• Top five Gen Y employers: Armed services, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Target, and Best Buy.
• Top five Gen Y industries: Travel and hospitality, consumer products, government/military/technology, and education.

The Great Recession of 2007-09 included job losses that were so much greater for men than for women that some dubbed it the “mancession.”

But once the nation went into recovery – meaning the economy was expanding again, albeit slowly – men saw much stronger job gains than women. In fact women actually lost jobs in the first two years of the recovery, while men gained ground, according to a  Pew Research Center report.

Now there is evidence that the trend is evening out. Over the past few months researchers have started to see women gain jobs at a pace that is roughly on par with men.

In the last three months of the year, men and women each gained about 206,000 jobs, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“That’s definitely a new development,” said Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, which has been analyzing employment data by gender.

The job gains in the final months of 2011 were strong enough to offset the losses suffered in the earlier part of the recession. In December, about 43,000 more women were employed than when the recession ended in June 2009, according to the BLS.

“Finally, women moved into the black at the end of 2011,” said Joan Entmacher, vice president for family economy security at the National Women’s Law Center, which has been closely following women’s employment through the recession and recovery.

Still, Entmacher notes that women have gotten just a tiny portion of the net 1.4 million jobs that have been added since the recession ended.

The unemployment rate for men and women is now roughly even, mainly because the unemployment rate for men has dropped so sharply.

The unemployment rate for women 20 and over was 7.9 percent in December, which Entmacher noted is actually slightly higher than when the recession ended in June 2009.

For men over 20, the unemployment rate was 8 percent, down significantly from 9.8 percent in June 2009.

The news comes as the overall pace of job creation appears to finally be picking up speed. The nation's employers added about 200,000 jobs in December, according to the BLS, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent.

That’s encouraging, but it does not mean then the nation’s millions of jobseekers can breathe a sigh of relief yet. For a healthy jobs recovery, economists would still want to see much bigger monthly job gains and a lower unemployment rate for both men and women.

“It’s a slow jobs recovery for everybody. That’s disappointing,” Hartmann said. “We’ve seen some improvement in the last half of (the) year … but it’s a long haul.”

Although researchers couldn’t pinpoint a definitive reason for why women didn’t see job gains in the early stages of recovery, many said one cuts in state and local government funding were a likely factor. That led to job losses in sectors such as education and social services, where women are more predominant.

By contrast, she said, male-dominated industries such as manufacturing were among the first to see big job losses in the recession.

"The men’s recession happened earlier and their recovery happened earlier," Hartmann said. "The women’s recession happened later and their recovery happened later."

The holidays are over and your credit card most likely got a good workout in the past month. But now is the time to take advantage of some screaming good deals — especially for electronics.

TODAY financial contributor Farnoosh Torabi has the details.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Shopping for meat? Poultry prices rose the least in 2011 compared with other meats.

Higher gas prices are a snap to spot. But how about grocery prices? Higher costs are harder to track because the checkout bill is different every time.

But some prices are jumping. Meat prices jumped more than 8 percent in 2011, the USDA estimated. Eggs were up about the same amount. Fats and oils? Up close to 9 percent.

The rising cost of some grocery items can make one see financial sense in becoming a vegan, even with fresh fruit and vegetables climbing about 4 to 4.5 percent.

Overall, the Consumer Price Index for all food went up last year between 3.25 and 3.75 percent, with the forecast for 2012 looking slightly less steep, between 2.5 and 3.5 percent.

Higher commodity and energy prices, along with greater global demand, mean more money out of pocket for food shoppers. And more people are eating at home because of unemployment, stagnant wages and uncertain times.

As Daily Finance noted:

As families have tried to economize by buying cheap ingredients, they have increased demand. Ironically, prices of luxury foods like steaks and fresh fish -- which consumers have been eschewing in favor of cheaper fare -- went up by less.

The silver lining in this cloud is that restaurant prices didn’t rise as quickly last year – about 2 to 2.5 percent – and are expected to increase slowly this year. (In 2010, Americans spent 47.9 percent of their food budget on chow away from home.)

There are ways to lessen grocery bills by choosing store brands, clipping coupons and sticking with less processed food. Cooking classes can be fun, offering tasty opportunities to become inventive in the kitchen. If you’ve got room, get a chicken coop. Start a garden, tiny or not-so tiny. Or go vegetarian, if not full-time, maybe a few days a week

And depending where you live, make friends with those who like to hunt and fish -- maybe you can barter those fresh eggs or garden-grown edibles.

John Brecher / msnbc.com

David Martin, 68, in his home in north Seattle, Washington. He and his wife are facing retirement within five years, but their retirement income won't cover their mortgage.

When David Martin and his wife bought their north Seattle condo five years ago, they figured they had plenty of time to downsize if they needed to before they retired.

Now, with the property worth roughly $60,000 less than the balance of their mortgage, Martin, 68, has been giving serious thought to just walking away, a process lenders call "strategic default."

"Guilt and morality are one side, and objective financial analysis are on the other side," Martin said. "They're coming to two opposite conclusions. I wonder how many other people are struggling with the same question."

Strategic defaults like the one contemplated by Martin are on the rise. A survey last year by two Chicago-area finance professors, Paola Sapienza at Northwestern University and Luigi Zingales at the University of Chicago, found that roughly three out of 10  mortgage defaults in 2010 were by homeowners who could afford to make their payments, up from 22 percent in 2009.

"It's a looming problem that's in the shadows," said Jason Kopcak, a mortgage trader at Cantor Fitzgerald who advises lenders on how to value the loans on their books. "It's very worrisome to mortgage lenders."

Researchers point to a number of forces that are driving borrowers to walk away from their mortgages. At the top of the list is the estimated 12 million homes that are underwater, meaning the owners owe more than they are worth.

Until recently, borrowers like Martin and many industry analysts held out hope that a housing recovery would reverse the rising tide of "negative equity." But after stabilizing this summer, home prices began falling again, dropping 7.5 percent in the third quarter alone and leaving more homeowners underwater.

Even if prices stabilize this year, millions of underwater borrowers face a long wait before they can sell their homes without having to write a big check to their lender to cover the shortfall. Economists at Goldman Sachs recently forecast that after bottoming in 2013 house prices won't recover their 2006 peak until 2023. (No, that's not a typo.)

Many homeowners simply can't wait that long.

In the early stages of the housing bust, the main causes of defaults included unemployment or other financial setbacks and adjustable mortgages that reset to unaffordable levels, according to researchers. Now, five years into the housing recession, strategic defaults are growing as financially healthy borrowers learn of friends or family who have decided to walk away.

A recent study commissioned by the Mortgage Bankers Association likens the rise in the rate of strategic defaults to the spread of a disease. The longer the crisis drags on, the more homeowners will be exposed to someone who has successfully walked away, making the decision easier, the study suggested. "As fundamentally social animals, humans consciously (and subconsciously) look to their peers when forming opinions, habits and behaviors," the report said.

"Most people who own a home know of someone -- a friend, a colleague a family member -- who has defaulted, especially in housing markets that have taken a big hit," said Jon Maddux, CEO and co-founder of youwalkaway.com, a service that advises homeowners on walking away from their mortgage. "They realize these are not bad people. They're not deadbeats. They're just like them."

Researchers say strategic default is also more common among borrowers who feel no personal connection to the party on the other end of the transaction. Gone are the days when you walked into a bank and met with a lender who shepherded your application and congratulated you when the loan was approved, said Michael Seiler, a finance professor at Old Dominion University and a co-author of the MBA study.

"If you defaulted, it was like you were defaulting on your friend," he said. "Your kids might go to the same school. You all might go to the same church. And you're constantly reminded of who you're defaulting on."

That scenario is a far cry from the modern system of mortgage finance, where loans are sold over the phone or online, chopped up into pieces and then sold to multiple, anonymous investors. Many underwater homeowners who try to negotiate with their lender can't even find out who owns their loan.

"We're finding that people are much more willing to walk away when the other party is unknown or what you might call a 'bad bank,'" said Seiler. "Those are the ones that received a lot of bailout funds or were active in the subprime market, giving loans to people who couldn't afford them and they knew that."

The mortgage lending industry's widespread reluctance to modify loan terms has also changed homeowner attitudes about walking away, according to Maddux.

"They feel much better about doing it if they've tried to contact the lender and the lender won't budge," he said. "They feel justified about it because they've tried to do their best to work it out."

Shifting attitudes about the causes of the housing bust are also playing a role, say researchers. In their surveys, Sapienza and Zingales found that 48 percent of Americans said they would be more likely to default if their bank was accused of predatory lending, even if they are morally opposed to strategic default. Some 11 percent said they’d be less likely to pay their mortgage, and more likely to walk away from their loan, if their lender was cited for using false foreclosure documentation.

The government's ineffective response to the housing crisis, even as it went to extraordinary lengths to backstop banks, has also propelled walkaways, say researchers. Since the housing bubble burst in 2006, some $7 trillion in home equity has evaporated, according to Federal Reserve data. Now, as home prices resume their fall, some homeowners believe lenders should bear at least a portion of the losses inflicted by a housing bust the industry helped create.

"The money didn't disappear," said Martin. "We still owe it to the bank, so the bank will end up getting all of its money back on a loan that no longer has its original value. They're taking no part in the loss."

Widespread reports of lenders' bad behavior, from filing defective paperwork to selling investors bad loans, have begun to erode one of the strongest deterrents to walking away: the sense that skipping out on a debt is morally wrong. University of Arizona finance professor Brent White interviewed hundreds of homeowners for his research on strategic default. He found that, in the eyes of many homeowners, mortgage bankers have lost the moral high ground.

"The reality is: for the bank it is simply an economic transaction," he said. "They have no moral qualm about taking your house, and they feel no moral obligation to modify your mortgage even if you're in a difficult financial situation."

Still, there are much more serious consequences to strategic default than pangs of guilt. Any loan default will damage a borrower's credit score. But some strategic defaulters are finding that the impact isn't as long-lasting as widely believed, according to Maddux.

"You don’t destroy your credit, you wound your credit," he said. "Just like a wound, it heals over time."

Maddux said surveys of the roughly 8,000 customers who have signed up for his service in the last four years found that some strategic defaulters are able to restore their credit in as little as a year and a half.  

The bigger risk for walkaway borrowers is that their lender will pursue them in court and win a so-called "deficiency judgment," a court-ordered, full repayment of the mortgage balance. That process is governed by state laws; some so-called "non-recourse" states bar lenders from pursuing such judgments.

But the force of that deterrent is also weakening, according to Sapienza.

"(There's an) increasing perception that lenders are not going after borrowers who walk away," he said.

That perception may be dangerously misplaced, as many lenders continue to aggressively pursue judgments against homeowners who strategically default. That's why there's widespread agreement that homeowners considering it need to get solid legal advice from an experienced real estate attorney in their state.

"There's a process to strategic default and a lot of people don't know how to do it," said Kopcak. "They don't really know what their options are. People really need to talk to a lawyer who knows the process."

For now, Martin is electing to stay in his home and continue paying the mortgage.

"We intend to continue as we are on the basis that we gain nothing from acting at this point," he said in a note. "We think that the real estate market in Seattle will rise by 2013 enough to offer better alternatives. There is a small chance that the federal government will act to offer more rational choices. The real possibility is that the debt might be refinanced in 2013 at a level that might offer enough reduction in payments to allow us to hang on long enough to shore up our financial position."

In short, giving up at this point may be worst of all alternatives. Giving up seems to run counter to our value system, no matter how financially wise experts seem to believe it may be."

There’s plenty of evidence that getting a college degree will give you better job prospects and more job security.

The problem: Many people have to borrow tens of thousands of dollars to get to that point.

More than 22,000 of you participated in our poll on student loan debt, which we ran along with a story looking at people who love their careers but struggle with the student loan debt they took on to get them.

More than four in 10 readers said they feel like they borrowed too much for their education.

“I have the education, just not a career or a job to help pay off the debt. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't,” one reader wrote.

Still, many readers said they either didn’t have student loan debt or felt the loans were worth it because they were able to get better jobs as a result.

However, even many of those readers have a major beef with the high cost of a higher education.

“I was fortunate to have my education paid through grad school. It is criminal how the cost of any education is doing this to people,” one reader wrote.

Given how high tuition can be at some universities, you may want to pay careful attention to what you choose to study during those four years. Another popular post this week looked at unemployment rates among recent college graduates with various types of degrees.

Most of our readers said they don’t regret their choice of majors.

“Like what I do and am well compensated,” one reader wrote.

Whether or not you are paying your student loan debts back on time, it’s smart to check your credit report regularly – but who wants to pay another bill to do so? That’s probably why a post this week on truly free credit check services garnered so much attention.

Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

Hey college students, do you want a job? Then you may not want to study architecture or the arts.

A new analysis of government data finds that recent college graduates with degrees in fields such as health and education have much lower unemployment rates than those who earned degrees in architecture and the arts.

Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce crunched government data from 2009 and 2010 to find out which majors are the most likely to land you a job right out of college.

In general, the researchers found that people are much more likely to get a job out of college when they choose a major that puts them on a specific career path, such as business. By contrast, people who get more general degrees in things like humanities and liberal arts may find it tougher to land a job, especially given the current job market.

“Your degree matters less and your major matters more,” said Anthony Carnevale, the Georgetown center’s director.

That’s a change from past thinking, when conventional wisdom held that just getting a college degree would be enough to set you on a lucrative career path.

Still, even some very specialized degrees don’t guarantee a good job. Saying you’re an architect may impress people (or at least George Costanza always thought so), but Carnevale said it’s long been a very competitive field.

“It’s like being a chef,” he said. “You may end up being a cook instead of a chef.”

The recent slump in construction has made the job market for architects even worse, and that could last for years. The unemployment rate for recent architecture grads was 13.9 percent, according to the report.

The findings also show that there continues to be strong demand for people with degrees in engineering, math and some computer science fields.

Still, the overall unemployment rate for people with computer and mathematics degrees was a little high, at 8.2 percent. Carnevale said that’s because there are a growing number of less technical computer information specialists degrees, and hiring in those fields slows down in recessionary periods.

The unemployment rate for education grads also was particularly low, at 5.4 percent. Although there have been cuts in education in recent years, Carnevale said it’s continued to be a good bet for jobs because there are lots of older teachers who are retiring.

The good news for all college grads, regardless of major: As time goes on, unemployment rates generally go down.

“The truth is, if you get a four-year degree … you’ll do OK,” Carnevale said. “It’ll be worth some money.”

Tip of the hat to The Chronicle of Higher Education, which first reported this story.

Related:

Loving the job, but hating the student loan debt

To get your kids ahead in life, get a college degree

Jim Seida / msnbc.com

Vanessa and Chris Christman love their jobs as law librarians but struggle with student loan debt.

ROSEVILLE, Calif. —  Here’s one thing that’s obvious about Vanessa and Chris Christman: They love their jobs as public law librarians for the state of California.

Here’s another: They don’t love the more than $150,000 in combined student loan debt they are carrying and struggling to pay off even though their joint income exceeds $100,000 a year.

“We are swimming in it,” Vanessa Christman said.

The Christmans are among the many Americans who have sought out careers that often require a lot of education but don’t guarantee huge pay in return.

The weak economy and sluggish job market have made it even more difficult for some people to find good jobs in fields such as library sciences, social work and education. Meanwhile, many are facing the prospect of having to pay down tens of thousands of dollars in debt they took on to finance their advanced training.

“It’s the kind of perfect storm problem,” said Debra Stewart, president of the Council of Graduate Schools, which represents more than 500 colleges and universities.

In general, Stewart notes, taking on debt for undergraduate and graduate school often makes sense because the more education a person has the more they can usually expect to earn.

But as more people like the Christmans struggle to pay off mountains of student loan bills, some are questioning whether student borrowing is getting out of control.

About 73 percent of master’s degree students graduated with student loan debt in 2008, according to the College Board. Among those who took out student loans, the average debt was $51,950, according to College Board data.

In all, Americans owe about $865 billion in student loan debt, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest figures, exceeding credit card debt.

Christman, 30, got her master’s degree in library science from Drexel University in 2008, just as the economy was beginning to take a deep dive.

It took her more than two years to land a full-time job at the El Dorado County Law Library in Placerville, Calif. At one point during that arduous job search, she was working four temporary jobs to support herself and her son, now 5, plus volunteering in her field to keep her skills sharp.

She couldn’t afford health insurance for herself, so until recently she wasn’t able to get regular treatment for a thyroid condition.

Her job as a law librarian pays about $44,000 a year and doesn’t offer health insurance. She gets coverage through her husband, whom she married in October.

“I do make a pretty decent salary as far as public law librarians go, but a good majority of that goes to student loan payments,” Vanessa said.

The median wage for all librarians is $54,500, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Chirstman estimates that a little more than half of her take-home pay goes toward paying off the approximately $105,000 she owes in student loans. Some months, she isn’t able to make all the payments.

“Our priority is always on paying the mortgage and then after that eating food, and then after that I don’t consistently make my student loan payments. It’s just impossible for me to do,” she said.

Chris Christman, 46, is also a law librarian, at the Sparks Law Library of Placer County, Calif.

Besides a master’s degree in library science he also has a law degree. Although he received his last degree in 1995, he still has about $56,000 of his approximately $100,000 in student loan debt left to pay off. He makes about $75,000 a year.

The law libraries, which are funded by court fees, once were used primarily by lawyers. But now both Christmans say many of their clients are regular people who can’t afford lawyers and are trying to navigate the legal system themselves.

Jim Seida / msnbc.com

Vanessa Christman

One day in December, the stream of people who came through the doors of Vanessa’s small library were trying to fight foreclosures, file for divorce, deal with creditors or resolve child custody issues on their own. Some were seeking help from a legal clinic that is offered there every week.

The Christmans say they find the work incredibly rewarding.

“I like the job that I have. We help people every single day, and people are so thankful that there’s someone there,” Chris said.

Still, Chris says it is frustrating to feel he may not end up as financially secure as his parents, who were both teachers.

“Growing up, I was middle class, and I (figured that I) would do at least as well as my parents. I mean, I was more educated,” he said. “But I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem like it worked out that way.”

It’s a concern that’s being echoed in other fields as well.

Tracy Whitaker, director of the National Association of Social Workers’ Center for Workforce Studies, said it can be discouraging for social workers to realize that they owe more in student loan debts than they will earn in their entire first year on the job.

In a survey of the organization’s members, conducted a few years ago, nearly half of the respondents said their debt load was “unreasonable,” while about two in 10 called it “unmanageable.”

“We’re pretty concerned about the kinds of debt that social workers are graduating with,” Whitaker said. “That debt load is considerably different from 20 or 30 years ago.”

Still, Whitaker said it’s hard to say whether the cost of education is keeping people from pursuing a master’s degree in social work, a key stepping stone in that career.

She noted that most people don’t go into a field like social work expecting to make a lot of money.

“Social workers are really drawn to this kind of work, and so sometimes the work overrides some other factors,” she said. “We see the need, we see the ability to intervene, we see the ability to make a difference and not always the dollar signs first.”

Related:

Yes, college degree has value - try $1 million
Congrats 2010 grads! Your debt load is heaviest

If you’re the type of person who likes to wait until the last minute to file your taxes, congratulations: You have two more days to procrastinate.

The Internal Revenue Service announced Wednesday that 2011 federal tax returns will not be due until Tuesday, April 17 this year.

That’s because April 15, traditionally tax day, falls on a Sunday this year. In addition, Monday, April 16, is Emancipation Day, a holiday in the District of Columbia.

This is the second year in a row that Uncle Sam has given taxpayers extra time to file.

Last year, Americans were able to put off filing their federal taxes until Monday, April 18, because Emancipation Day fell on Friday, April 15.

For those of you who prefer to get your taxes done early – and your returns faster – the IRS also said Wednesday that it will start accepting electronic filing on Jan. 17.

In all, the IRS is expecting more than 144 million individual tax returns this year.

Related:

Tax time is coming, turn on the computer

Why we hate taxes (it’s not what you think)

Today Money financial expert Sharon Epperson joined us for a live Web chat Wednesday to answer your questions.

Here’s one of her answers to questions from the live chat. (See below for the full Q&A and video of Sharon’s TV appearance this morning.)

Bridget asked:

“Hi Sharon, my husband and I are both in our mid 20s and we are looking to buy a house in the next year or two years. Our credit scores are both in the 650-670 range. What do you recommend we do to bring those scores up? And what is a good score to have when that time comes to buy a home?”

Sharon replied:

“If you want to buy a home, having good credit is essential to ensuring you get the best rate on your mortgage. A score in the mid-to-upper 700s is ideal. To raise your score, make sure you pay your bills on time and don't use too much of your available credit. Using 10% or less of your available credit across all cards may help raise your score. Also check your credit reports to make sure there are not errors and monitor them regularly. You can get a free report once a year from each of the 3 credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and Transunion. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com.”

Here’s the full chat archive and Sharon’s TV appearance:

If you have a question for our TODAY Money experts, submit it here. 

To sign up for an e-mail reminder for our next chat, click here.

The Horizon Fitness T101 comes with a lifetime warranty on the frame and motor.

By Kara Reinhardt, Cheapism.com

A New Year’s resolution to get in shape may be more likely to lighten your wallet than your weight. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University found that health club members paying monthly dues of more than $70 didn’t get to the gym often enough to make a membership worthwhile. A visit winds up costing $17, compared with $10 on a 10-visit pass. A budget treadmill costs more than the gym up front, but you are probably more likely to use a machine that’s right there in your home. Moreover, the cost is ultimately offset by months of unpaid membership fees.

A low-cost treadmill won’t suit multiple users who intend to run on it for more than an hour every day. But if you’re more apt to walk or jog, you can find a solid machine for under $600. The cheapest treadmills require you to manually keep the belt moving, rather than relying on a motor, and using a manual treadmill can be difficult enough to discourage you from exercising. Experts recommend spending at least enough to get a model with a motor.

Manufacturers often advertise a treadmill’s peak performance horsepower, which indicates the motor’s maximum capability. However, pushing the treadmill to its limit for long periods can wear down both the motor and the belt. The more important indicator is continuous horsepower, or CHP. This should be at least 1.5 for walking and 2.0 for interval training. The latter involves alternating between high- and low-intensity exercise by adjusting the treadmill’s speed and incline. On some low-cost treadmills, this must be done manually, so look for a machine with automatic incline adjustment.

Experts recommend at least a 54-inch belt for walking and interval training — longer for running and for tall users with long strides. The belt should also be at least 18 inches wide to allow for side-to-side movement, especially if you’ll be running.

Finally, treadmills take a beating and can burn out quickly if they’re not well-made, so don’t buy one without an adequate warranty on the frame, motor, and parts.

Below are Cheapism’s top picks for affordable treadmills. All have a maximum speed of 10 mph.

• The Horizon Fitness T101 (starting at $599) boasts a 2.25 CHP motor and a 55 x 20-inch belt. Reviews note its sturdy build, as evidenced by a two-ply belt, 300-pound weight limit, and lifetime warranty on the frame and motor — rare among budget models. (Where to buy)
• The ProForm Performance 400 (starting at $599) has the same size motor, belt, and weight limit, along with a lifetime warranty on the frame, 25 years on the motor, and one year on parts and labor. Reviewers like that this treadmill is compatible with Nike + iPod and iFit Live, which supplements the 15 present workout programs with a vast array of online options (for an extra cost). (Where to buy)
• The Merit Fitness 725T Plus (starting at $400) is primarily a walking treadmill, with a 1.25 CHP motor and a 45-inch belt. Experts and users appreciate the smooth automatic incline and general value for the price. (Where to buy)
• The Gold's Gym GG480 (starting at $377) accommodates runners, multiple users, and people up to 300 pounds without shaking or making too much noise, according to reviews. This machine is best suited to walking, however, with a 1.5 CHP motor and a 50-inch belt. (Where to buy)

More from Cheapism:
Cheap Treadmills
Indoor Workouts
Cheap Yoga Mats
Workout DVD Reviews

Breast-feeding avengers may be coming to a workplace near you.

Women want to be able to breast feed their babies when and where they want to. Witness the “nurse-ins” at Target stores on the West Coast last week that were prompted by a shopper who was mocked for breast feeding by employees at one Target. Moms, however, also want to be able to breast feed when they’re on the clock.

To that end, help is here. A new law, which was tucked into Obama’s health care reform legislation, is already helping to make breast-feeding at work easier.

The Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law in March 2010, amended the Fair Labor Standards Act, and for the first time employers are now federally mandated to provide women with breaks and a place to breastfeed. The final rules regarding the law have not been finalized, but that hasn’t stopped the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour division’s enforcers from going after employers who don’t make accommodations for working moms who want to pump.

Already, 23 companies have been cited by the agency, according to Sonia Melendez, a spokeswoman for the Labor Department.

“The department intends to continue enforcing the law based on the statutory language,” she said. “Until the department issues final guidance, the request for information provides useful information for employers to consider in establishing policies for nursing employees.”

Employers can’t sit on the sidelines and wait for the final rules because the Labor Department may slap a fine on a company or at least force it to make breast-feeding accommodations.

“It’s been the law for a while and they don’t have to have the final regulations to be able to enforce it,” said Carrie Hoffman, a partner with Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP in Dallas, who represents employers.

The new law, she continued, is hardest for smaller firms to comply with, and for retailers in particular where space is at a premium. But, she added, she’s advising her clients to start thinking about how they’ll be able to make adjustments in the workplace to provide time and a location, besides a bathroom, for women to breast feed.

Here’s a list from the Department of Labor of some of the better-known companies that have already been cited at certain locations under the law:

• Dollar General: Violations – Failure to provide adequate space and failure to provide reasonable time (Agreed to comply and agreed to pay $814.43 in back wages). A Dollar General spokeswoman said the company was cited at one of its locations, adding that it could not discuss the particulars of the case. "I can say that we have a policy in place that is communicated to our employees through our employee handbook which explains our compliance with the new regulations. We do have a policy that provides time and space for employees for breastfeeding."
• Dillard’s: Violations – Failure to provide adequate space and failure to provide reasonable time (Agreed to comply)
• Starbucks: Violation – Failure to provide adequate space (Agreed to comply)
• McDonald’s franchise based in Murrieta, Calif.: Violation – Failure to provide reasonable time (Agreed to comply)

The Department of Labor would not provide a time frame on when the final rules would be introduced. But there’s a fact sheet on the law here (http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs73.htm). Also, employees who believe their employer has violated the law can contact the division’s toll-free helpline at 1-866-487-9243.

AP file

The holidays are over, but chances are there’s still one thing left to open: That credit card statement.

For many people, January can be a tough month, financially, because people are working to pay off the debt they accumulated over the holidays, or start saving for the next big splurge.

It’s also a time when many people vow to make better financial decisions in the new year.

The National Endowment for Financial Education, a nonprofit devoted to personal finance, has posted a list of tips for starting off the new year on good financial footing.

Our favorite: Assess your debt.

The first step to paying down your credit card debt is figuring out how much money you actually owe. That will help you set realistic spending and saving goals.

Another good one: Pick just one item to cut out of your budget to save money. Temporarily giving up that trip to the coffee shop or dinner out is a simple way to save money without changing your life all that much.

Click here for the full list of tips, and share your best simple money-saving tips in the comments section below.

Related:

Midwest is best when it comes to credit scores

Five U.S. cities with the most credit card debt