BATON ROUGE (AP) — First-time claims for unemployment benefits dropped 14 percent last week in Louisiana, but a rise was recorded in continued payments claimed by those still without jobs, the Louisiana Workforce Commission reported Friday.

Initial claims fell 14 percent to 5,139 for the week ending June 13, compared with 5,978 for previous week. But continued benefit weeks — reflecting those still unemployed — rose 3.2 percent to 56,614 from the previous week’s total of 54,859.

For the comparable week ending June 14, 2008, there were 3,177 initial claims and 22,984 weeks of continued claims.

The Workforce Commission said the health care and social assistance sector had the largest increase in the number of continued claims.

For the latest week, the construction sector sent in the most unemployed workers seeking first-time benefits with 877.

That was followed by health care and social assistance with 653 new claims, retail trade with 375, hotel and food services with 348, and professional, technical and scientific services with 245.