The US unemployment rate was down slightly in April, dropping from the March figure of 8.2% to 8.1%. Meanwhile, total bankruptcy filings were down 16% to 108,860 filings. This is down 11% from March figures of 122,155 total filings- which were up 17% from the 104,418 filings in February 2012- and year ago figures of 129,815. This may be thanks in part to the number of unemployed persons falling from 12.7 million to 12.5 million.
In all, consumer bankruptcy filings fell 16% to 103,733- while commercial filings were down 25% to 5,132- as the long-term unemployed for 27 weeks and over also decreased slightly from 5.3 million to 5.1 million, accounting for 41.3% of the total unemployed. But involuntary part-time workers due to layoffs and the like actually grew from 7.7 million to 7.9 million. 1Q/12 filings were down 12% from the year ago figure, totaling 314,583. This compares to the year ago figure of 358,131 filings. People who have jobs can pay their bills.
