If commercial risk scores are an indication, businesses in the utilities, health and education service sectors are faring better than others.
According to the Experian Business Benchmark Report released today, businesses in the utilities group had an average commercial credit score of 70.64, which is well above the national average of 60.68. Businesses in the health and education services industry groups are also doing better than the national average, coming in at 65.29 and 65.03 respectively. Commercial risk scores are based on a scale of 1 to 100, with a score of one indicating high risk and 100 indicating low risk.
On the other end of the spectrum, businesses in the hospitality and retail sector had the lowest credit scores at 56.12 and 56.66, respectively. In general, commercial risk scores continue to decline across almost every industry group, indicating a higher average risk of delinquency over the next 12 months, Experian found.
Businesses with more than 20 employees decreased the percent of delinquent dollars outstanding, whereas businesses with one to 19 employees saw a rise in delinquencies, according to the report. Those with more than 250 employees had a lower rate of severe delinquency when compared with all businesses. Only 2% of their dollars outstanding were considered severely delinquent (91 or more days), as opposed to the national average of 5%.
