BATON ROUGE - Unemployment and the tidal wave of people filing for benefits was a discussion at the Capitol Thursday.

Louisiana Workforce Commission Secretary Ava Dejoie was there discussing updates and changes to unemployment during the coronavirus pandemic. Monday, the pandemic emergency unemployment compensation started. People who have exhausted their 26 weeks of compensation will now have an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits.

Dejoie says from March 21 through May 21, LWC has paid $1.4 billion to over 400,000 Louisiana residents who have filed for unemployment.

"Of course, we get more every day," she said.

As more businesses open, more people will be going back to work. Dejoie mentioned what that process could look like.

"We don't have a crystal ball, so obviously bringing back work search, getting more people employed is how we are shifting from unemployment insurance operations to what we have as our mantra, putting people to work," she said.

Thursday, 2 On Your Side repeatedly asked for an interview with Dejoie to discuss what's next for unemployment compensation, her team said she was unavailable.