BATON ROUGE - First-time claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana for the week ending Oct. 3 decreased from the previous week's total.

The state labor department figures released Friday show the initial claims decreased to 2,341 from the previous week's total of 2,342. For the comparable week a year earlier, there were 2,081.

The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure of claims, decreased to 2,251 from the previous week's total of 2,270.

Continued unemployment claims claimed for the week ending Oct. 3 decreased to 23,097 compared to 23,357 the previous week.

The four-week moving average for such claims decreased to 23,625 from the previous week's average of 23,957.