After weeks of sky-high unemployment, Acadiana is starting to see some movement in the right direction.
The eight-parish Acadiana region had about 34,500 continued unemployment claims for the week ending May 30, a drop of about 7.1% from the week before. Continued claims represent the number of people who filed an initial claim for one week of unemployment, then filed a claim for an additional week.
Acadiana's continued claims held relatively steady for most of May after skyrocketing in March and April. Claims began to fall for the week of May 23, down less than 1% across the region from the week before.
But the claims began to fall in earnest last week, as the state started to feel the effects of restrictions being lifted.
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Lafayette Parish had more than 14,300 claims last week, down 7.3% from about 15,500 the previous week. For the week of May 30, Lafayette Parish made up nearly 41.5% of the region's unemployment claims. The Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes much of Acadiana, was estimated to have a 13.1% unemployment rate for April, according to the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
Lafayette's continued claims for last week are still 28 times higher than the pre-COVID week of March 14.
St. Landry Parish had about 4,400 claims, a decrease of about 6.4% from about 4,700 the week before. St. Landry is still more than 17 times higher than the pre-COVID number of continued claims.
Iberia Parish had about 4,000 continued claims, falling about 5.6% from 4,200 the week prior. Iberia had 19 times more continued claims last week than pre-COVID.
St. Mary had about 2,900 claims last week, a decrease of 5.6% from about 3,100 the previous week. St. Mary had nearly 20 times more claims than it did before the virus.
Acadia Parish had about 2,700 continued claims, down nearly 8% from 2,900 the week before. Acadia has about 23 times more continued claims than it did the week of March 14.
St. Martin Parish had 2,600 claims, falling 8.4% from about 28,000 the week prior. St. Martin's claims are 23 times higher than they were before COVID-19.
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Vermilion Parish had 2,500 claims last week, down 8% from about 2,700 the previous week. Vermilion's claims are 19 times higher than they were the week of March 14.
Evangeline Parish had about 1,200 claims, a drop of 8.8% from nearly 1,300 the week before. Evangeline's claims are 18 times above the pre-COVID number.
Though the region has seen unemployment claims drop in recent weeks, there are still more than 22 times higher than the number of continued claims for the week of March 14. Gov. John Bel Edwards issued his stay-at-home order March 22.
The number of initial claims filed has slowed in May as well, but initial claims don't show whether the economic situation is improving. Fewer new claims could be filed because there are fewer employed workers, not solely because there are fewer people unemployed.
Still, over the course of April and May, every parish added hundreds — or in the case of Lafayette, thousands — of new unemployment claims. For comparison, the week of April 18 had the most new claims with nearly 11,600 across Acadiana. The week of March 14 had 232.
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