Weekly Unemployment Insurance Claims Decrease

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — First-time claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana for the week ending July 19 decreased from the previous week's total.

The state labor department figures released Friday show the initial claims decreased to 2,543 from the previous week's total of 2,984. For the comparable week a year earlier, there were 3,035.

The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure of claims, decreased to 2,601 from the previous week's total of 2,617.

Continued unemployment claims claimed for the week ending July 19 increased to 23,386 compared to 22,790 the previous week.

The four-week moving average for such claims increased to 22,381 from the previous week's average of 21,994.