The Nation - News from March 3, 1986

Soaring bankruptcies among small service companies pushed the number of business failures up 9.6% last year, Dun & Bradstreet Corp. said. Hard times on the farm and in the oil fields also contributed to the rise, according to a study being released in New York by the business-information company. The study found that 57,067 businesses failed in 1985, compared to 52,078 in 1984. But the rate of increase was down sharply from the recession years like 1980, when D&B; reported a 55.2% rise in failures.