In its latest business benchmark report, Experian discoveredthat firms with more than 1,000 employees continued to show thehighest rate of projected severe delinquency with paymentsowed.

In January, Experian's national average commercial risk scorewas 57.14, a 0.5% improvement from six months ago. Businesses withmore than 1,000 employees continued to show the highes rate ofprojected severe delinquency with an average credit score of 33.03.However, that score has improved by 7.8% in the last six months,according to Experian.

Improvement was seen at small businesses with less than 100employees with a decrease in the percentage of dollars delinquentand the percentage of dollars 91-plus days delinquent.

Utility companies still have the best score average of allindustries (68.89), and the retail and finance industries have thelowest average at 52.30 and 50.60, respectively. The Northeasternpart of the country had the lowest risk score (54.49) but saw aslight improvement compared to six months ago (0.6%). Experian alsofound the construction industry showed signs of improvement as ofJanuary, but continued to perform poorly with 22.79% of dollarsdelinquent.