A new unofficial indicator is fast emerging as a barometer of the recession gripping the U.S. It is a rise in inventory of used office cubicles for sale as more companies shutter.

Rightsize Facility Performance, a Chicago office furniture retailer, expects to have access to 250,000 used cubicles across the U.S. by summer, up from 30,000 to 40,000 office cubicles last year.

Aside from cubicles, the facility has on its inventory 700 used chairs, 150 conference tables and file cabinets, said Mason Awtry, president of Rightsize.

The rising number of unused office furnishings is the result of one year of recession that has gripped the nation which led to a record-high 8.1 percent unemployment rate in February. According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, over 12,900 companies filed for Chapter 11 for the fourth quarter of 2008.

The rise in bankruptcy filings and job cuts was accompanied by office space vacancies.

To accommodate its growing business, Rightsize, which receives 40 calls a day from firms that want to dispose their office furnishings, will expand its total warehouse space by 25 percent to 200,000 square feet to take in $3 million worth of inventory.

Aside from Rightsize, thrift chain Goodwill is also benefiting from closing companies as it reported a 43 percent rise in business furniture donations the past 12 months, said Goodwill vice president of retail for Chicago and southeast Wisconsin Vicki Holschuh.

Meanwhile, United Technologies Corporation, owner of Pratt & Whitney jet engines and Sikorsky aircraft, announced the shedding of 11,600 jobs due to lower 2009 sales forecast in the commercial aerospace market.