They feel like failures. Disillusioned, like a runner who trips out of the starting gate.

But many college graduates who've been forced by the worst job market in decades to move back home with Mom and Dad say they also feel, to their surprise, fortunate.

"I've learned to be so grateful," said Genevieve Isola, a University of California graduate who's living in her childhood bedroom in San Ramon and working in a clothing boutique, just as she did in high school.

Isola, 23, earned a sociology degree in 2008 from UC Santa Barbara, part of one of the world's most prestigious university systems. Like most people with a fresh diploma, she saw it as a hall pass to a career in her field. She prowled Internet job sites in search of anything sociology sounding: social worker, youth mentor, classroom counselor.

"You're propelled by all this energy and all this knowledge," she said. "It's a force that can't be stopped."

And then the realities of the recession do stop it, as in brick wall.

There are 7.2 million fewer jobs now than when the recession began two years ago, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Unemployment hasn't been this high in 26 years, with nearly 1 in 10 people out of work across the country.

More returning home

Most of them can't crawl back to the home of their youth, get a hug from long-suffering parents and be served a free hot meal night after night. But plenty of new graduates can - and they're doing it more often, according to a Foster City company called CollegeGrad.com.

They began asking graduates in 2006 if they had moved back home after school. At that time, 67 percent of more than 2,000 respondents said yes. This year it was 80 percent.

Though it's a small sample size, the numbers support anecdotal evidence that as jobs become more scarce, graduates are returning home in greater numbers, said Adeola Ogunwole, who runs CollegeGrad.com.

"It strips away your self-esteem," said Isola, who moved back home in February. "We had this whole purpose, this idea that our education would benefit us and society - and all off a sudden, you're sitting at home searching for a minimum wage job."

The benefits of retail

At first she was angry. Then it dawned on Isola that even working at a retail outfit in Walnut Creek has its upside. She has responsibility, works face-to-face with people and, best of all, gets paid.

"It's like a spiritual awakening," she said.

Graduates from around the Bay Area say that while they wouldn't choose to mooch off their folks - though many contribute financially - they've discovered unforeseen benefits: new career paths, the possibility of graduate school and a new appreciation for the people who raised them.

"I've gotten to see my parents in a different light," said Natalie Quave, 24, who has a degree in English from Cal and now works two part-time jobs.

She's been living in Richmond with her dad, who's from Mississippi, and her mom, who was born in El Salvador.

"I grew up thinking that they were very strict and practical," Quave said. "But in living with them now, I realize how open-minded they are, and pretty adventurous. My relationship with them improved."

Viva Barrows, a 2007 Cal grad, had big dreams. She expected to be hired by Promises Films in Berkeley where she interned, but the struggling documentary company wasn't hiring. So she looked elsewhere for a film job and got callbacks and interviews, then rejections.

Getting a master's degree seemed the logical alternative, and she was accepted by a film school in Vancouver. With the promise of a Sallie Mae loan for less than 10 percent, Barrows set out for British Columbia in June. On the way, she got the loan documents by e-mail and read the fine print: a 13 percent rate - and variable.

"It would've amounted to upwards of $100,000," Barrows said. She turned the car around and, at 25, moved back in with her father and stepmother in Oakland and became a waitress.

"I'm giving myself six months," she said. "If I can't find a good job or a project worth sticking around town for, I'm going to seek out somewhere else to start fresh. And that could be anywhere in the whole world."

Learning new lessons

Her stepmother, Victoria Shoemaker, said Viva's plight has made for some interesting conversations.

"We're talking about the state of the world, and the future as it relates to young people," she said. "From our perspective, we're giving her space and time to let her figure out what she's going to do next."

Meanwhile, Barrows said she's learned two important lessons: It's possible to make films on her own, and "never take a loan from Sallie Mae."

It's not just humanities graduates who are unable to support themselves.

Chris Passanisi took a double major in economics and political science from Sonoma State last year, and it got him nowhere but back home. Now a "more grateful and humble" Passanisi said he's going for his master of business administration.

Despite the hidden benefits of being back home, graduates say there's no denying that the blow they've been dealt by the recession hurts deeply.

"I expected to have an excellent job in a field that I was passionate about, in a top corporate architecture firm in New York City," said Lisa Li, 22, a graduate of the prestigious Pratt Institute in Manhattan.

Instead, she's back in San Francisco sharing a bedroom with her 15-year-old sister and helping her parents manage their rental properties.

"I feel like a failure," Li admitted. "From this experience, I learned to plan ahead and not to take what you see at face value."