BankruptcyData released its Q2 2017 Business Bankruptcy Filings Report, which indicates that the Retail, Services and Finance/Insurance/Real Estate sectors increased their percentages of overall business bankruptcies during Q2 2017, compared to the same period last year; and, YTD, the Retail sector is up approximately 35% compared to the same periods in both 2016 and 2015.

During 2Q 2017 Texas overtook New York as the state generating the highest percentage (nearly 20%) of overall business bankruptcies but New York retained top billing with 17% of YTD 2017 business bankruptcy filings.

As usual small businesses make up the lion's share of filings, with companies reporting sales less than $500,000 generating 56% of all business bankruptcy filings during Q2 2017 and 61% YTD 2017. Similarly, business with less than 50 employees generated 87% of all bankruptcies during the first six months of 2017. Though overall bankruptcy activity is trending upward, public company bankruptcies are down 31% thus far in 2017: 42 public companies filed for bankruptcy in the first six months of 2017, versus 61 in 2016.

The total asset count for public company bankruptcies during the first six months of 2017 was approximately half of 2016's figure. Although there  has been a lot of press about the struggling Retail industry recently, the Energy sector has continued to dominate the bankruptcy rolls--with 16 of 43, or 37%, of public company bankruptcies coming from Oil & Gas, Mining and other Energy sectors.  

Download the full Q2 2017 Business Bankruptcy Filings Report here.