Falling down: First-time claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana for the week ending March 12 decreased from the previous week’s total. The Associated Press reports the state labor department figures released today show the initial claims fell to 2,654 from the previous week’s total of 2,950. For the comparable week a year earlier, there were 2,520. The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure of claims, increased to 2,839 from the previous week’s total of 2,752. Continued unemployment claims claimed for the week ending March 12 decreased to 22,851 compared to 23,117 the previous week. The four-week moving average for such claims increased to 22,943 from the previous week’s average of 22,925.
Unchanged: The number of active oil and gas rigs in Louisiana is unchanged for the week ending March 18 from the prior week. According to Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes, the state’s rig count still stands at 49. For the same period one year ago, Louisiana had 75 active rigs. In the United States, the total number of active oil and gas rigs decreased by four this week, a historic low, to 476 from 480 a week prior. Despite the plunge, the United States added one active oil rig, boosting its oil rig count to 387 and ending a months-long decline, Fuelfix.com reports. The United State has 89 gas rigs. Read the full story.
Benefits boost: Two bills making their way through Congress would give companies a tax incentive to help employees repay their student loans. Bloomberg reports the bills, proposed in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, aim to expand a section of the tax code and treat up to $5,250 per year in employer contributions toward student debt as nontaxable income. As of 2015, only 3% of companies surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management put money toward their employees’ student debt, but this year, there’s a boomlet of companies offering the benefit. While hundreds of companies are reportedly lining up to chip away at their employees’ student debt, it’s mostly organizations that hire a lot of young people right out of college, such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers, that use it as a recruitment tool. Read the full story.
