The number of bankruptcy filings by small businesses in Metro Atlanta fell sharply last year from 2009, approaching levels last seen just as the economy began its long decline, a new report shows.
Filings in the fourth quarter of 2010 dropped to 231, the lowest number for a three-month period since the first quarter of 2008, when there were 226 petitions.
Bankruptcy filings among area small businesses peaked at 425 in the second quarter of 2009. The number last fell below 200 in the third quarter of 2007, when the total was 163.
When the economy turned down late in 2007, the number of small business bankruptcies began to rise gradually, quarter by quarter. They increased every three month period from the summer of 2007 to the summer of 2009, then began a gradual and almost unbroken descent through the end of last year.
The report was by Atlanta-based Equifax, an information solutions analytics company. Small businesses were defined as having 100 or fewer employees.
Reza Barazesh, senior vice president of Equifax Commercial Information Solutions, said, "bankruptcy trends are easing and creating an environment that is more conductive to cultivating small business growth."
Nationally, bankruptcy petitions in the fourth quarter of 2010 declined from the fourth quarter of 2009 in 10 of the 15 metro areas reporting the largest number. Atlanta was not in that group.
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