Bankruptcy Filings On The Rise

It's tough out there -- no jobs, home values plummeting -- and Americans are reacting by heading to bankruptcy court.

Bankruptcy filings surged 14% during the first half of 2010, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. Filings totaled 770,117 through June, compared to 675,351 during the same period last year.

In 2005, bankruptcy filings totaled more than 2 million. It is expected that there will be more than 1.6 million new bankruptcy filings by the end of 2010. The institute also said that bankruptcies totaled 126,270 in June, a jump of 8.5% from the same month in 2009, when they totaled 116,365.

There are 15 million Americans who are looking for work. And, the overall unemployment rate, which includes both those who are actively looking for work and those who are not, registered at 16.5 percent. As the number of unemployed workers swell, many Americans are anxious for the immediate passage of the unemployment extension 2010 bill.

The American Bankruptcy Institute, on the other hand, revealed that consumer bankruptcy filings for January to June increased by 14 percent over the same period last year. 770,117 consumer bankruptcy filings were registered during the first six months of 2010, which marks the highest number of filings since the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act was enacted five years ago to curb the increase in filings.


The relationship between unemployment rate and the rate of bankruptcy filings is best demonstrated in Nevada. Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the country (adjusting for households located in the state) and it alshttp://all247news.com/wp-admin/post-new.php#o registered more than double the national consumer bankruptcy filing rate. Nevada registered 15,000 filings per million households compared to the 6,800 filings per million households average at the national level.

Both bankruptcy and jobs statistics do not augur well to unemployed Americans most of whom are pinning their hopes on Congress to pass legislation on the $33.9 billion unemployment extension 2010 bill.