The ailing economy continues to pull more Americans into bankruptcy court, where the number of troubled consumers filing for protection soared in March to its highest level since October 2005, when a new law made it more arduous and expensive to file.

And as job losses continue to climb, they may well drag bankruptcy filings along with them.

An average of 5,945 bankruptcy petitions were filed each day in March, up 9 percent from February and up 38 percent compared with a year earlier, according to Mike Bickford, president of Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, a bankruptcy data and management company. In all, 130,793 people filed for bankruptcy in March.

The weak economy and its repercussions — rising unemployment, lower pay, fewer people with health insurance, and the mortgage and foreclosure crises — are all playing a role in the big increase in bankruptcies. And some of the most common factors that tend to lead to bankruptcy filings — divorce and disruptive health problems — have not gone away.

But the biggest factor in the current spate of filings may be the tightening of credit.

“We have a lot of people out of work, but that alone is not driving the spike in bankruptcy filings,” said Robert M. Lawless, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law. “Along with job loss is the tightening of consumer credit. Compared to 18 months ago, the American consumer does not have the same ability to borrow in an attempt to stave off the day of reckoning. With no income and no credit, it is not surprising that the middle class is looking to the bankruptcy courts for relief.”