Average college student debt now a record $24,000

The average debt load of a college graduate is at an all-time high — and not coincidentally, the unemployment rate among recent college grads has skyrocketed to 8.7 percent, according to a new report. The average college student had $24,000 to pay off in 2009, up 6 percent from the year before.

The Project on Student Debt also broke down average debt loads by state, which you can access here. For-profit colleges like DeVry University, which have been accused of burdening their students with outsize debt obligations, are not included in the data.

Economists have found that those who graduate into a recession are likely to earn lower wages for as long as 15 years compared with those who graduate in more prosperous years.

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