The Louisiana House Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations advanced a bill on Apr. 18 that would index the length of unemployment insurance benefits to the state’s unemployment rate. House Bill 119 would reduce the maximum number of benefit weeks to 12 when the unemployment rate is at or below 5%. The bill also proposes capping the maximum benefit length at 20 weeks when the statewide unemployment rate is at or above 8.5%.
Louisiana’s current maximum benefit length is 26 weeks, and the state’s unemployment rate as of March was 4.4%, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The maximum weekly benefit would fall by 14 weeks (from 26 weeks to 12 weeks) if the bill becomes law and the unemployment rate remains stable.
The bill now advances to the full Louisiana House for further consideration.
