Bankruptcies up, Tennessee tops personal filings

A worker inspects U.S. dollar bills inside a money changer in Manila December 15, 2008.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. business and personal bankruptcy filings soared in the third quarter, illustrating how the economic decline is cutting a wide swath across a range of industries and incomes, according to data released on Monday.

Some 11,504 businesses filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors in the three months ended September 30. That is up 61 percent from the year-ago period, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Year to date, almost 30,000 businesses bankruptcies were recorded. That is more than all of 2007.

Consumer filings totaled 280,787 during the third quarter of 2008, representing a 33 percent increase from the year ago.

"The dramatic spike in both personal and business bankruptcies reflects an economy in distress, with worried consumers over-extended and unable to supply the spending typically needed to keep the national economy going," Samuel Gerdano, executive director for bankruptcy research and education group ABI, said in a statement.

The 292,291 total U.S. bankruptcies filed during the third quarter represented a 34 percent jump from last year.

TENNESSEE

About 3.4 Americans per 1000 filed for bankruptcy over the 12-month period ending in September. Tennessee saw the highest per-capita filing rate in the country, with 7.3 residents per thousand filing.

The figures included Chapter 11 filings, which allow businesses and consumers to operate as a going concern while they restructure, and Chapter 7, in which a business or consumer's remaining assets are liquidated and distributed to creditors. Some data points also included Chapter 12 filings, which offers debt relief to family farmers, and Chapter 13, which is used for budgeting an individual's future earnings to help pay creditors.

(Reporting by Chelsea Emery; Editing by Andre Grenon)