Initial Jobless Claims Down Over Holidays

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana labor officials say first-time claims for jobless benefits drop by nearly 850 for the week ending Christmas Day. The state Workforce Commission says there were 3,411 initial claims in Louisiana. The previous week saw 4,262 filings. Officials attributed the decline to the short work week due to the Christmas holiday. For the comparable week ending Dec. 26, 2009, there were 3,568 first-time claims. The state says there were 50,373 continued weeks of benefits claimed last week, down from 50,978 the previous week. A year ago, the unemployed in Louisiana claimed 63,861 additional weeks of jobless payments.