Initial unemployment insurance claims drop for week ending May 22

BATON ROUGE – The initial unemployment insurance claims for the week ending May 22, 2021 dropped to 5,976 from the week ending May 15, 2021 total of 6,327. For a comparison, during the week ending May 23, 2020, 23,961 initial claims were filed.

The four-week moving average of initial claims decreased to 6,554 from the previous week’s average of 6,838.

The unemployment insurance continued claims for the week ending May 22, 2021 decreased to 51,031 from the week ending May 15, 2021 total of 51,726. The continued claims were below the comparable figure of 328,409 for the week ending May 23, 2020.

The four-week moving average of continued claims decreased to 51,333 from the previous week’s average of 51,402.

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 resources found at the agency’s 62 local offices statewide, opportunities discovered at job fairs, training programs, apprenticeship opportunities and numerous other LWC services.

To view unemployment insurance claims data for prior weeks, visit www.laworks.net and select Labor Market Information, scroll down the LMI page and select Unemployment Insurance (UI) Claims Data.

Please click here to view the UI Weekly Claims Tableau Dashboard.