The summer season has come to an end and for most people it is time to head back to work from a well-deserved summer vacation. Unfortunately for others, an estimated 88,736 to be precise, there will be no job to head back to upon their return.

Amid a credit crunch crisis and high-energy prices employers are facing a double whammy on both the cost of doing business and making the cash registers ring. In response, the number of summer job cut announcements reached its highest level since 2002, according to a report released Wednesday.

From May through August, employers said they would cut 377,325 jobs, according to employment consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. That's nearly 30 percent more than during the first four months of the year. The current economic challenges--job losses, smaller paychecks, increasing energy and commodity prices, and a tanking real-estate market--are forcing thoughts of bankruptcy to the front of everyone’s mind.

Data released from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) earlier this year showed a 40 percent increase in business bankruptcy filings for the 12 month period ending March 31, 2008. Many economists looking at the data draw a parallel between the troubles that started with sub-prime mortgages and other financial instruments on Wall Street to the current financial pressures that have hit small businesses likely resulting in the rise in business bankruptcies.

A report released from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on July 28 took the analysis and impact of bankruptcy in the U.S. one step further – looking at the growing cost of going broke.

The report, “Bankruptcy Reform: Dollar Costs Associated with the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005,” finds that costs are now considerably higher for those filing bankruptcy. In fact, the GAO report shows that the 2005 federal bankruptcy law reform has led to increased filing for Chapter 7 by about 60 percent.

NSBA believes that the only way the U.S. economy can bounce back is through the fostering of America’s traditional engine of economic growth – small business. Having created more than 93.5 percent of all new net jobs over the last 20 years it is crucial that entrepreneurs have access to the tools and capital they need to continue to grow their business and help strengthen the economy.