Financial crisis still hitting Danish job market hard as hundreds more businesses shut their doors last month

Many experts say that 2010 will mark an end to the nearly three-year long global financial crisis, but the job market has got off to a decidedly poor start.

According to Statistics Denmark, 458 businesses filed for bankruptcy during January and more than 1,700 people lost their jobs. Last January, 412 companies went under, although this past month’s figure is significantly under that of the previous three months, where the average was 556.

It was especially businesses more than 10 years old that closed their doors last month, according to the figures. The average age of businesses that went under in January was 7.3 years – the highest figure since the average began being registered in January 2009.

However, of the nation’s five regions, only Zealand had an increase in bankruptcies from December 2009 to last month.