BATON ROUGE - First-time claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana for the week ending Oct. 31 decreased from the previous week's total.

The state labor department figures released Friday show the initial claims decreased to 2,439 from the previous week's total of 2,502. For the comparable week a year earlier, there were 2,178.

Health care and social assistance showed the largest over-the-week decrease of 34 claims.

The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure of claims, increased to 2,497 from the previous week's total of 2,454.

Continued unemployment claims claimed for the week ending Oct. 31 decreased to 22,661 compared to 22,768 the previous week.

The four-week moving average for such claims decreased to 22,803 from the previous week's average of 22,912.