Business failures rose 12.4% in the first quarter.

According to data tracked by Dun & Bradstreet, there were 15,394 business failures during the first three months of this year, up from 13,690 in the first quarter of 1985. The gain was largely a result of a sharp increase in service sector failures, which increased by 34.3% to 4,867 from 3,623 in the first quarter a year ago. The strong increase in service failures of 1,244 accounted for 73% of the total gain in first-quarter failures, and total service failures in the first quarter accounted for 31.6% of all failures, the largest share of any industry sector.