Bankruptcy Takes Its Toll

Here's a sobering economic signal: In the first seven months of the year, U.S.-based companies announced 42,937 job cuts due to bankruptcy, according to a new report from outplacement and business coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That's up 40 percent from the same period last year and nearly 20 percent higher than all bankruptcy-related job losses last year.

That is the highest seven-month total since 2009, when 50,258 cuts due to bankruptcy were announced. In fact, it is higher than the annual totals for bankruptcy cuts every year since 2009.

Companies cited bankruptcy as the reason for 11.6 percent of all job cuts announced from January to July. That’s compared to 11.3 percent of all cuts for the same period in 2018. Since 2007, bankruptcy has accounted for approximately 6 percent of all job cuts every year.