Nationwide there are five people looking for work for every one job opening, according to Alissa Anderson, Deputy Director of the California Budget Project, which puts out an annual report on the state of labor each year.  

"So in other words, for four out of five of the unemployed, there are literally no jobs," she says.

This year things look particularly bad for young job seekers. One out of four college graduates are either looking for work or underemployed, the report says. That is up from 2006 when only one in 10 college graduates were unemployed or underemployed.

Part of the reason may be that older workers approaching the retirement age are not leaving their jobs, and some older workers are taking lower paid jobs that graduates might have taken in the past, Anderson says.

"It's a really troubling trend because we know it's very important what type of job you start off in when you first come out of college," Anderson says.  "Research shows that workers who enter the job market fresh out of college during a recession tend to earn less than their peers who enter the job market during better economic times, both initially and over the long-run."

The recession also means that it takes more time for young people to begin their career path.

Defne Beyce is 36-years-old, and after a career working with animals - horses, livestock, veterinary work - she shifted into a second career in graphic design. Beyce was struck by the idea she's already running behind her peers in design simply because she graduated during a recession.

"Maybe the traditional idea of you graduate, you get an internship you do great there, they love you, they give you a job you stay there for 10 years, whatever, isn't something that you can just expect," Beyce says.