BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Unemployment insurance claims for newly laid-off workers in Louisiana fell more than 25 percent for the week ending June 27, the Louisiana Workforce Commission reported Monday. For the latest week, there were 4,655 new initial claims for benefits. That compares with 6,113 such claims for the week ending June 20. But there was an increase in the number of continued benefit weeks, which is an indicator of whether those laid off are getting new jobs.As of the latest tally, those weeks increased to 59,504 from the previous week’s total of 57,408. The Workforce Commission said the transportation equipment sector had the largest increase in continued weeks. That sector includes the General Motors Corp. plant in Shreveport, which is on a production shutdown, and fueled the previous week’s increase of 19 percent in first-time claims.
Initial jobless claims down
July 6, 2009