The amount of delinquent debt has increased significantly for the largest and smallest businesses, according to the latest Business Benchmark Report from Experian. Very large businesses (those with more than 1,000 employees) had the greatest shift in percentage of dollars delinquent, going from 11.6 percent in June 2010 to 18.2 percent in June 2011, and very small businesses (those with one to four employees) had the greatest shift in percentage of dollars considered severely delinquent, going from 9.9 percent in June 2010 to 11.7 percent in June 2011.
Conversely, the report indicated that businesses with 100 to 249 employees have shown the greatest improvement in percentage of dollars delinquent and severely delinquent, reducing their debt by as much as 7.3 percent and 35.8 percent, respectively, year over year. The trend for Q2 mirrors this observation, showing that businesses with 100 to 249 employees have significantly decreased their delinquent and severely delinquent dollars by 5.4 percent and 20.2 percent, respectively.
U.S. businesses paid their bills an average of 6.8 days beyond contracted terms in June 2011, a 12.5 percent increase when compared with June 2010. However, according to the Q2 trend, businesses have shown relative stability, decreasing by only 0.6 percent.
All business sectors have shown an increase in slow payment in a year-over-year comparison. The largest increase in slow payment came from the Construction industry (17 percent) and Insurance industry (15.7 percent) when compared with June 2010. However, the Q2 trend showed that the Utilities, Insurance, Legal Services and Health Services sectors have improved their DBT by as much as 2.9 percent.
The national average percentage of dollars delinquent and percentage of dollars considered severely delinquent increased by 7.1 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, when compared with June 2010.
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