Ovunc Kutlu
08 July 2021•Update: 08 July 2021
ANKARA
The number of Americans filing first-time unemployment claims rose by 2,000 to 373,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Analysts expected 350,000 claims for the week ending July 3. The previous week's figure was revised up by 7,000 from 364,000 to 371,000.
It was the fourteenth time during the coronavirus pandemic that claims were below 700,000, indicating a recovery in the labor market.
The unemployment rate rose to 5.9% in June, from 5.8% the previous month, according to the agency.
Despite adding 850,000 jobs in June, the US still has 9.5 million unemployed workers.
More than 22 million people in the world's largest economy lost jobs in March and April of 2020 because of the pandemic.
