Initial unemployment insurance claims rise for week ending Mar. 17

BATON ROUGE – The initial unemployment insurance claims for the week ending Mar. 17, 2018 rose to 1,805 from the previous week’s total of 1,794. For a comparison, during the week ending Mar. 18, 2017, 2,587 initial claims were filed.

The four-week moving average of initial claims increased to 1,847 from the previous week’s average of 1,846.

The unemployment insurance continued claims for the week ending Mar. 17, 2018 decreased to 16,017 from the previous week’s total of 16,737. The continued claims were below the comparable figure of 21,075 for the week ending Mar. 18, 2017.

The four-week moving average of continued claims decreased to 16,957 from the previous week’s average of 17,426.

The Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) is committed to helping the youth of Louisiana, as an investment in them is also an investment in our future. On Thursday, March 29, the LWC is hosting a job for for out-of-school youth at the Terrebonne American Job Center from 3-6:30 p.m., which will assist them in finding and beginning their pathways into employment.

The Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) has countless tools both in person and online to help claimants file and process their claims. This is in addition to the agency’s 59 local offices statewide, job fairs, training programs, apprenticeship opportunities and numerous other services.

Updates to the LWC’s unemployment information processing system are still being implemented. As a result, the following data are not currently available: the break-out of interstate claims, Louisiana unemployment insurance claimants' parish of residence and unemployment insurance claims by industry.

For more detailed information on occupational groups of unemployment insurance claimants, visit www.laworks.net and select Labor Market Information.

The Unemployment Insurance (UI) Weekly Claims Data webpage includes the following: UI Weekly Claims Data by Regional Labor Market Area and by Parish, UI Weekly Claims Data by Industry for Louisiana, UI Definition and UI Monthly Claimant Characteristics by Parish. To access these products, select Labor Market Information at www.laworks.net, scroll down the LMI page to the LMI Products section, and select Unemployment Insurance Claims.