Last month, consumers resorted to bankruptcy in numbers that haven’t been seen in two years. On a month-over-month basis, filings soared 40 percent.
Consumers and businesses filed 81,590 new bankruptcy cases during March of this year.
That was the most filings since March 2015, when there were 81,693.
Total bankruptcies last month jumped from
February 2017, when there were 58,336 filings. Activity also accelerated compared to 78,372 in March 2016.
The American Bankruptcy Institute reported the data Friday.
The report indicated that there were 2.51 filings during the first-three months of 2017 per thousand in population.
In Alabama, the per-capita rate during the first-quarter 2017 was 5.92
— worse than any other state. After that was Tennessee’s 5.74, then Georgia’s 4.83, Mississippi’s 4.24 and Illinois’ 4.18.
U.S. non-commercial bankruptcies accounted for 77,932 of the filings for last month — also the most since March 2015. The total soared from 55,539 in February and was also worse than 74,988 filings in March 2017.
From Jan. 1, 2017, through March 31, a total of 185,868 consumer bankruptcies were filed.
