Weekly claims for unemployment insurance rise

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — First-time claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana for the week ending Feb. 23, increased from the previous week's total.

The state labor department figures released Friday show the initial claims increased to 2,918 from the previous week's total of 2,426. Initial claims were below the comparable week a year earlier at 2,664.

The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure of claims, increased to 2,825 from the previous week's total of 2,821.

Continued unemployment claims claimed for the week ending Feb 23 decreased to 28,501, compared to the previous week's total of 29,100. The four-week moving average for such claims decrease to 29,626 from the previous week's average of 30,433.