Student loan issues are getting more and more attention as students struggle with debt.

A recent Equifax study showed that banks wrote-off $3 billion (that’s billion with a “B”) of student loan debt so far this year.  This figure is 36% more than this time last year.

Graduates remain jobless, underemployed or strapped-for-cash in a still slow economy.

“Continued weakness in labor markets is limiting work options once people graduate or quit their programs, leading to a steady rise in delinquencies and loan write-offs,” Equifax Chief Economist Amy Crews Cutts said in a statement.

Student loan debt reform has become a much talked-about topic since the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reported in March 2012 that the total of all outstanding student loan debt rose to more than $1 trillion by the end of 2011.

About 17% of the nearly 40 million student loan borrowers are at least 90 days past due on their payments according to the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

Student Loan Debt Could Affect Economy As A Whole.

The CFPD is concerned that high student loan debt could affect the economy in general as graduates with student loan debt, which is currently not dischargeable in bankruptcy, are so burdened that they cannot make other important purchases such as homes and cars that fuel the economy.

Todd Murphy is a consumer bankruptcy lawyer with offices in  Bedminster, New Jersey.