Insolvency rates of traditional manufacturing industries have suffered much more than service-based industries during the recession, according to the credit insurer Euler Hermes' Economic Bulletin.

It found that print had a 3.69% insolvency rate for YTD (year-to-date) 2009, compared with 2.69% a year earlier.

The paper industry was ranked fifth with a 2009 YTD rate of 3.48% compared with 2.18% a year earlier. The furniture sector was first with 4.86% compared with 3.30% in 2008.

The research found that, Dorchester, in Dorset, had the lowest insolvency rate in the UK at 0.17%, with Guildford, Surrey, and Canterbury, Kent, also making it into the low insolvency rate list.

However, businesses in the North East's Yorkshire and Humberside are "failing at a faster rate" than any others in the UK, the research found.

Sunderland had the highest insolvency rate, at 2.74%, followed closely by other northern cities Bolton, Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.

Kris Macauley, Euler Hermes head of risk information, said the difference in levels of insolvency across the UK and Ireland are vast, and that location was important in determining businesses under pressure.

He added that small, young companies with shareholder funds of less than £100,000 were "least likely to fail" and that most problems within companies are with those that have been sold for the first or second time.

Macauley said: "It is only when we look at companies with shareholder funds of more than £5m that the insolvency rate really starts to come back down.

"Businesses falling in the bands in between show considerably higher rates of insolvency."

The full results are published in Euler Hermes' Quarterly Economic Bulletin. It was collated using specialist teams within the credit insurer's UK regional offices, which collected insolvency data from Q1-Q3 2008 and 2009.