. >> reporter: 19-year-old jason julien has job hunted for two years. >> i'm actually pretty depressed about the whole situation. i'm pretty sad about it. i still can't get a job, and i'm just in a pretty bad position right now. >> they are disproportionately young. they are disproportionately less educated. and they are disproportionately low income. >> reporter: professor andrew sum at boston's northeastern university put it together by the numbers. starting with the unemployment number, 12.8 million. then he added the hidden unemployed, 6.4 million. then under-employed, like part-timers who want full-time work, 8.1 million. and one number more, people in low-level jobs despite having better training. he calls those 11.7 million the mal-employed. it's 39 million americans, and the effect will last well past this recession. >> young people are losing work experience. they're losing training opportunities that will come to haunt them for the next 10, 20 years of their lives. >> reporter: jason julien keeps trying, attending a training program to finish his high school degree and the pr