The number of U.S. consumers who resorted to bankruptcy took a sharp turn for the worse last month, surging by nearly a quarter on a month-over-month basis.
Businesses and consumers filed a combined 64,662 new bankruptcy cases during February, leaping from an upwardly revised 52,542 filings one month earlier.
Total filings slipped from the same month last year, when 65,064 new bankruptcies were filed. The year-earlier figure was revised down from 65,002 originally reported.
The American Bankruptcy Institute reported the activity Wednesday.
“February showed that decreases in total filings are starting to level off, and more businesses are turning to the financial relief of bankruptcy,” ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano said in the report.
There were 2.26 total filings per thousand in U.S. population last month.
The per-capita rate was 5.39 in Tennessee — worse than any other state.
Alabama followed with a rate of 5.09 — then Georgia’s 4.73, Illinois’ 4.10 and Mississippi’s 3.55.
Included in the February 2016 U.S. total were 61,662 non-commercial filings.
Compared to the upwardly revised 49,728 consumer filings that were made during the first month of this year, consumer activity was substantially worse.
Consumer bankruptcies numbered an upwardly revised 65,064 in February 2015.
Year-to-date Feb. 29, 2016, there have been
111,390 new bankruptcy cases filed by consumers.
