Jobless benefit claims continue to fall

About 870,000 workers filed new unemployment claims last week, a slight increase from the week prior though the overall unemployment rate continues its slow decline.
According to U.S. Department of Labor data released Thursday, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.6% for the week ending Sept. 12, with 12.58 million workers filing continued claims for benefits.
That's down 0.1 percentage points from the week ending Sept. 5.
In the week ending Sept. 19, 870,000 new claims were filed, up about 4,000 claims from the revised numbers for the week of Sept. 12, according to the Labor Department.
The initial unemployment insurance claims in Louisiana for the week ending Sept. 19 dropped to 14,842 from the week ending Sept. 12 total of 16,182. For a comparison, during the week ending Sept. 21, 2019, 1,653 initial claims were filed.
The unemployment insurance continued claims for the week ending Sept. 19 decreased to 238,724 from the week ending Sept. 12 total of 250,244. The continued claims were above the comparable figure of 14,515 for the week ending Sept. 21, 2019.
In late March, when government restrictions shutting down businesses deemed nonessential to help slow the spread of COVD-19 were first put into place, new weekly unemployment claims peaked at more than 6 million.
California, as it has through most of the pandemic, once again led states in new claims last week, with 230,443.