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Bankruptcy Filings Remain High
by Jon Greenberg on
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The April numbers from the US Bankruptcy Court show 470 new filings. That's basically unchanged since from March when 473 filings were made. A year ago April, the number was 308. A year before that, it was 237.
Of the April filings, most were non-business, 417, leaving about 53 business bankruptcies. This is the soft underbelly of the economy and counterbalances the recent touches of quasi-good news such as a nudge up in retail spending among discount stores. But it's important to look at the longer term picture. The high water mark of bankruptcies was 564. That was in March of 2005 when most people felt that the economy was doing just great.
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Declining home prices continue to help residential sales in New Hampshire. Prices are down about 11 percent and sales for the year are a hair above what they were in 2008.
Real estate agents are pleased with the October numbers. After a grim period stretching from last fall to early spring, there’s been a consistent if modest upward trend. The number of homes sold last month rose compared to this September and compared to October a year ago. The data come from the New Hampshire Association of Realtors.
The state unemployment rate fell 4-tenths of a percent in October.
Unemployment dropped to 6.8 percent. The decline caught most analysts by surprise. Usually, when the national rate rises, as it did, so does the state’s.
Economist Annette Nielsen with the labor market information bureau says the job growth is real. The rate is not due to lots of people dropping out of the labor force. But Nielsen takes a cautious view.
Nielsen: "I would like to see a couple of months before I would definitely say this is what’s going on."
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