Report: Americans to Spend Almost $5 Billion on Graduation Gifts
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Comstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Never mind the diploma, where’s my gift?
With college and high school graduates earning that sheepskin, comes the best part of graduation, namely, the present from mom and dad. According to National Retail Federation’s 2012 Graduation Survey, about $4.7 billion will be spent on a job well done this year.
While that might sound like a lot, consider that the student loan debt in the U.S. has surpassed $1 trillion. That’s more than 200 times the cost of those gifts for grads in 2012.
In any case, the average spent on grads this year will be around $99.94 slightly more than what they got in 2007 but substantially better than the five-year low of $88.01 in 2009, during the height of the recession.
Of those giving money, which is the most popular gift, six in ten say it will come in the form of cash while 40 percent will hand out gift cards. Other favorites include clothes and electronics.
The most generous gift-givers are folks who live in the Northeast, earn over 50 grand or are between the ages of 45-to-54.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio