Americans Cope With Financial Pain

But Jason Brognano is still hopeful he'll find a job after graduating, maybe in the growing area of designing environmentally friendly buildings.

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"Although the residential housing industry is down, it seems that commercial and [industrial real estate business] are still growing, and there's still need for mangers and engineers in that area," he said.

Jason Brognano works at a hardware store in the summer and takes internships, but only if they come with a salary. Most of that money goes for rent or textbooks.

The problem for him is figuring out how universities deal with financial aid.

"We have a low income relative to other students at my school, but we don't get any financial aid because we're not so far in debt that we need to be bailed out," Jason Brognano said. "We have what we need, what is necessary to get by. We pay our bills, stay on top of our credit and yet we get nothing."