In its latest business benchmark report, Experian discovered that firms with more than 1,000 employees continued to show the highest rate of projected severe delinquency with payments owed.

In January, Experian's national average commercial risk score was 57.14, a 0.5% improvement from six months ago. Businesses with more than 1,000 employees continued to show the highes rate of projected 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 100 employees with a decrease in the percentage of dollars delinquent and the percentage of dollars 91-plus days delinquent.

Utility companies still have the best score average of all industries (68.89), and the retail and finance industries have the lowest average at 52.30 and 50.60, respectively. The Northeastern part of the country had the lowest risk score (54.49) but saw a slight improvement compared to six months ago (0.6%). Experian also found the construction industry showed signs of improvement as of January, but continued to perform poorly with 22.79% of dollars delinquent.