BATON ROUGE - First-time claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana for the week ending Nov. 21 decreased from the previous week's total.

The state labor department figures released Monday show the initial claims fell to 2,404 from the previous week's total of 3,196. For the comparable week a year earlier, there were 2,547. 

The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure of claims, decreased to 2,462 from the previous week's total of 2,486. 

Continued unemployment claims claimed for the week ending Nov. 21 increased to 21,601 compared to 19,595 the previous week.

The four-week moving average for such claims decreased to 21,571 from the previous week's average of 21,863.

Updates to the department's unemployment information processing system are still being implemented. As a result, the department says all reported numbers on initial and continued claims are estimates.