Louisiana’s Unemployment Claims Nearly Double in One Week

As of December 2024, 4.4% of all Louisiana residents were unemployed, or about 20,000 of the state's current residents. Though overall unemployment is not the greatest measure of how well the job market is doing, paying attention to the changes in unemployment claims can give a better idea of how the unemployment rate is doing.

A weekly study done by WalletHub follows the unemployment changes week to week in each state, Louisiana's unemployment claims had a big change from last week.

Louisiana Nearly Doubled Unemployment Claims in One Week

This previous week in Louisiana saw the Boot State have the 5th most unemployment claims out of all 50 states (and Washington D.C.). For every 100,000 residents in Louisiana, 75 of them have filed for an unemployment claim in the last week, a 48.22% rise from 39 claims per 100,000 residents the week before. This is down however from the same time last year when we had 2.84% more unemployment claims made.

Federal Cuts Could Be To Blame

Currently, Elon Musk is heading up the recently formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been created to cut federal spending. Since Musk and DOGE began their work, a notice was sent from The Office of Personnel Management to agencies asking them to compile a list of recently hired employees still in their probation period, some of the employees on the list being told ahead they were likely to be cut.

Washington D.C. had the greatest increase in unemployment claims, up 83.33% from last week. For every 100,000 people in Washington D.C., 345 of them had to file for unemployment in the last week alone. With more federal cuts likely on the way it should be fair to assume unemployment across the nation will rise as federal cuts are made to agencies around the country.