The United States Bankruptcy Court for he Western District of Washington has recently released new statistics for bankruptcy cases filed in 2011, along with a comparison of filing statistics for 2010. A review of the records reveal that the Vancouver, Washington bankruptcy court has generally decreased slightly with approximately two hundred to four hundred filings per month. The filings are primarily for residents of Clark County, which includes Vancouver, Washington, but includes a smaller number of filings from Cowlitz, Pacific, Skamania, and Wahkiakum counties. These statistics can be downloaded from the website of the Western District of Washington Bankruptcy Court.

The most significant monthly drop came in April of 2011, which saw a twenty-one percent drop in filings from Clark County, down from 266 to 210. Similarly, February 2011 saw a decline of over eleven percent from 234 to 207 cases filed. Likewise, there was a trend of approximately sixteen percent less filings in May and June of 2011, down from 234 to 196 in May 2011, and down from 280 to 233 in June 2011. This is consistent with signs earlier in the year that the economy was improving in terms of job growth, home sales, and other economic indicators.

By contrast, a contrast, a review of similar statistics from 2010 show that Clark County showed a consistent increase in Vancouver, WA bankruptcy filings through the first six months of 2010, relative to filings in 2009. There was slight decrease in the number of filings in the Vancouver, Washington Bankruptcy Court for July, August and October, relative to the same months in 2009.

However, early signs of more robust recover have been replaced by worrying indicators of at least slowed growth, if not the looming spectre of a double dip recession. The question remains whether and how anemic job creation, and falling housing markets will affect the filings for the rest of the year. Even in a period of economic recovery for firms and the financial sector, those living paycheck to paycheck and on the economic margin are all the more vulnerable to job loss, furloughs and other income disruptions.

With firms and employers downsizing, moving overseas and freezing pay, there is reason to believe that new bankruptcy filings will increase throughout the next year. Similarly, budget debates in various state legislatures across the country have jeopardized financial security of public employees. Finally, worries about the impending debt and budget debates at the federal level inject additional uncertainty about the financial future of those at the lowest rung of the economic ladder and those most susceptible to economic disruption.