The institute reports 1,181 bankruptcies for the whole of 2021--a stable figure compared to the 1,179 insolvencies in 2020. The average for 2020 and 2021 is no higher than that for 2018 and 2019: 1,180 compared to 1,197, as registered by Statec.

It also notes a drop in bankruptcies of almost 38% for the accommodation and catering sector, which have been supported by Covid aid. 122 bankruptcies were recorded on average, in 2018 and 2019, compared with 76 in the two years marked by the pandemic.

More jobs lost

The loss of jobs caused by bankruptcies in 2021 is, on the other hand, up by 52% compared to 2020 and amounts to 2,527. This is also the case when compared to 2019 (+16%) and 2018 (+21%). Since the job loss was "limited in 2020", the comparison of the averages of the two years, 2020-2021 and 2018-2019, still shows a slight decrease: 2,126 job losses in the annual average of 2018-2019 against 2,095 in the annual average of 2020-2021. The branches most affected by job losses are non-financial service activities, construction and trade.

Bankruptcy is the situation where a company can no longer pay its debts or meet its commitments. Judicial liquidation refers to the procedure of cessation of activity or dissolution of the company, which can happen after a bankruptcy for example. Here, the figures are slightly up: 1,016 were noted in 2021, 5% more than in 2020. There was also an increase between 2019 (577 liquidations) and 2020 (964), but Statec explains that this has “neither a cyclical nor a legislative cause, but is linked to an increase in the number of liquidation cases dealt with per hearing by the courts.”

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.