The number of active US jewelry companies continued to shrink in the third quarter, but at a slower pace than a year ago, according to the latest data from the Jewelers Board of Trade (JBT).
A total of 116 businesses closed during the three months that ended September 30, versus 126 in the same period a year earlier, the JBT said Wednesday. Overall, there were 21,831 companies active in the US industry by the quarter’s end, a drop of 1.4% year on year.
Of the businesses that discontinued operations, none went bankrupt, 28 shut due to mergers or takeovers and 88 closed for other reasons. Meanwhile, the number of new firms shrank to 67 from the 89 that opened the year before.
Retailers still constituted the bulk of the sector at 16,564, 1.5% fewer than last year. Wholesale businesses slipped 0.9% to 3,206, while manufacturers contracted 1.7% to 2,061 companies.
The JBT, which provides credit information for the trade, downgraded the credit rating of 1,655 companies across the US and Canada during the period, compared to 620 a year earlier. It also raised the scores of 1,480 businesses, relative to 551 in 2025’s third quarter.
Image: A jewelry-store display. (Shutterstock)
