Initial La. jobless claims drop 23%

First-time jobless claims dropped 23% last week in Louisiana. The Louisiana Workforce Commission says that for the week ending Saturday, there were 3,816 initial claims for jobless benefits from the newly unemployed. That’s down from 4,945 for the week ending Jan. 16. The latest count also is below the 4,719 first-time claims for the comparable week ending Jan. 24, 2009. There was a slight decrease in the number of people continuing to get unemployment—a sign of those still looking for work. The state paid out 65,504 weeks of additional benefits for the week ending Jan. 23, compared with 66,735 the previous week.