BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — First-time claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana for the week ending Jan. 31 increased from the previous week's total.

The state labor department figures released Friday show the initial claims increased to 2,676 from the previous week's total of 2,531. For the comparable week a year earlier, there were 1,988 claims.

The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure of claims, increased to 2,949 from the previous week's total of 2,733.

Continued unemployment claims claimed for the week ending Jan. 31 increased to 21,755 compared to 21,671 the previous week.

The four-week moving average for such claims increased to 21,987 from the previous week's average of 21,918.

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