Recently, Equifax Inc., has announced findings from a comprehensive survey on bankruptcy course among the nations which consisted of more than 24 million small businesses.
The highest number of bankruptcies in small businesses were reported in several Western metro areas and California. On the other side, there was unexpected rise in the percentage of filings.
A recent study was conducted by Equifax on bankruptcy trends by Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). They mainly focused from the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010. There was a rise of 10.4 percent in the total number of bankruptcies among the top 15 MSAs. It was 5,789 in the first quarter of 2009 and it increased to 6,391 in the first quarter of 2010.
There was a year-over-year increase in small business bankruptcies in 11 of the top 15 MSAs in the first quarter of 2010. Oakland, Fremont, Hayward, Seattle, Bellevue, Everett and Washington, Arlington, Alexandria, D.C were dropped off from the first quarter list of top 12 MSAs for small business bankruptcy among the other areas. The study also shows that the California has remained the most impacted state along with Los Angeles, Riverside/San Bernardino and Sacramento.