McClatchy News Service reported earlier that week that trade bankruptcies ‘jumped’ forty-five percent in the first six months of 2oo8.

From April through June, 15,471 U.S. businesses called it quits, according to input from Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, an Oklahoma City bankruptcy management and details company.

States that saw the biggest increase in filings were Delaware, Montana, Oregon, Maryland and Connecticut, suggesting that the profitable gloom is spreading beyond large population centers.

It was the 10th straight quarter that commerce bankruptcy filings have increased. Nearly 29,000 companies filed in the first half of 2008.

Another 60,000 to 90,000 others probably have closed, considering roughly two to three businesses fold for every one that files for bankruptcy, said Jack Williams, resident scholar at the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Florida wasn’t among those with the highest increases. But it does remain in the nation’s top ten for the most bankruptcies, overall.

A number of local businesses across the toll bridge in Gulf Breeze are feeling the pinch of dramatically

lower income and rising expenses. Owners tell us their customers are explaining frankly that they’re cutting back on purchases considering of rising fuel and food prices.

On the other hand, one Pensacola businessman we know, who depends on the health of other businesses across the services-and-goods spectrum, mentioned the other day that it seems to him Pensacola businesses are weathering the recession better than those in Gulf Breeze and Pensacola Beach. He didn’t have any numbers, it was just an impression.

The only reasons for that we can suppose are (1) even whether not at record levels, summer tourism, for now at least, is cushioning the down-turn at more tourist-friendly points but not in predominantly bedroom communities like Gulf Breeze that depend heavily on locals and have less to offer out of town visitors; or (2) our Pensacola friend is mistaken.

In any event, it’s looking to us as whether prospects for Northwest Florida’s economy by the medium term are getting grimmer.

Change, anyone?

Original post by Beach Blogger