Unemployment has been a major concern for Americans over the past couple of years, but we get a bit of good news that job openings rose by 7.6% in January, compared with December.

Indicating that employers are at least starting to hire again, new job openings rose to 2.7 million. This is the highest level since back in February 2009.

With a larger chunk of Americans out of work -- larger than have been in a long time -- leading job search sites Monster.com and CareerBuilder will be looking to gain their share of that market with commercials during the Super Bowl (subscription required). The problem is that these companies make their money from charging fees from employers that advertise on the site. The plethora of people looking for jobs doesn't help their earnings. Instead, they are being crunched by the dwindling number of companies looking to hire.

Monster's parent company Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW) is hoping the ads will draw attention to its redesigned website that will debut in January.

According to The Wall Street Journal, many observers question the huge investment required for these ads (as much as $3 million for a a 30-second spot) and believe that since both companies already have strong name recognition, they would be better off investing the funds to attract revenue-generating employers.

Career Builder's chief marketing officer, Richard Castellini, disagrees and says that the ads will also appeal to potential advertisers: "How many of those viewers are corporate buyers? A large percentage."

But surely there are more targeted ways to connect with human resources people for less than $100,000 per second.

If I had $61 million in cash, I think I could do much better with it than Monster Worldwide (NASDAQ: MNST). That's how much the company shelled out for Affinity Labs, which got its start last year.

In fact, the company says it is in the "development stage" and has about one million registered users. So yes, I guess Monster is expecting a monstrous number of job listings to come from this deal (at least I hope so).

OK, what is Affinity all about? Basically, it's a network of sites that cater to certain professions and vocations, such as PoliceLink, FireLink, GovCentral, and so on.

True, these sites have social networking features, such as profiles, photo sharing, and videos. Yet, the technology seems fairly generic.

But keep in mind that the founder of Affinity, Christopher Michel, sold Military.com to Monster.com back in 2004. That site is a thriving community with more than 10 million members.

So perhaps Monster is trying to snag Michel to get his social networking credentials. But, it sure does look like a hefty price tag.

In yesterday's trading, Monster.com's stock was down 4% to $27.73.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

For hundreds of thousands of eager job hunters out there, one of the quickest way to get their resumes out to perspective employers is using the online job site from Monster Worldwide (NASDAQ: MNST), Monster.com.

It all seems easy enough; just post your resume and wait for the job offers to roll in. Well, it has been discovered that hackers have cracked into the site's database in order to garner personal information that could help them tailor targeted "phishing emails" to the site's users.

"Phishing" is a long running problem for unsuspecting internet users, where users get e-mails -- seemingly from respected companies -- that convince them to log into various sites and turn over personal information. The most lucrative phishing programs come to users from sites pretending to be bank institutions, or large internet sites such as eBay.com. These try to get the users to log onto the sites and update passwords, or something similar.

For those unfamiliar with the Chinese job search and placement company known as 51job (NASDAQ: JOBS), China stock expert Jim Trippon explains, "We consider this oddly-named company something like a Monster.com (NASDAQ: MNST) on steroids!"

The company, he notes in his China Stock Digest, connects millions of Chinese job seekers with tens of thousands of companies through a variety of services. In addition to its Internet portal, 51Job publishes the 51job Weekly, which the advisor points out is a leading employment paper distributed in more than twenty-three major cities throughout China. Each edition is included as an insert in local newspapers carrying both local job listings and advertising.

Trippon explains, "51job was a hot IPO when it hit the market almost three years ago, but it fell from its early peak of almost $55 a share when realistic earnings expectations set in. The company has been rising through 2007 as its profit picture has improved. The company beat Wall Street earnings estimates in its most recent quarter with revenues of $26 million. 51job is also predicting increased earnings per share in the coming quarter."

With a market cap of $517 million and a forward P/E of 25.5 he notes, the company is "priced for growth." As such, the advisor is adding the stock to his model portfolio.

Each day, Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com features the latest investment ideas and market commentary from the financial newsletter community.

Monster Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: MNST) opened at $45.20. So far today the stock has hit a low of $45.29 and a high of $44.40. As of 11:00, MNST is trading at $44.62, down $1.26 (-2.7%).

After hitting a one year high of $54.79 in February, the stock has suffered a couple of sharp declines, but appears to have leveled out somewhat over the past month. The company appointed a new CFO today, shortly after naming a new CEO in April. ThinkEquity Partners analyst Terrence Babe says that the management shakeup increases near-term uncertainty and that this company will really have to prove itself before investors get behind the stock. Recent technical indicators for MNST have been bullish and deteriorating slightly, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a July bull-put credit spread below the $55 range. MNST has not been above $55 since last summer and has shown resistance around $50 recently. This trade could be risky if US economic prospects turn very positive, but even if that happens, MNST would have to overcome multiple levels of resistance before this position would be in trouble.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls a position in MNST.