Layoffs of Louisiana state employee tapering off

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) _ After six years of state worker layoffs, no rank-and-file state employees have been targeted for pink slips this budget year.

That’s according to the Department of Civil Service, which issued its latest monthly report on layoffs Monday.

Nearly 8,400 classified state employees _ those who have civil service job protections and aren’t at-will political appointees _ have been laid off since 2008, as the state struggled with repeated budget gaps and Gov. Bobby Jindal pushed to shrink the size of state government.

But this year’s budget, which took effect July 1, didn’t target any classified positions for layoffs, according to the report.