ANKARA

The number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits last week slightly increased and topped 1 million after recording the lowest figure the previous week since the coronavirus pandemic began, the US Labor Department said Thursday. 

A total of 1,106,000, jobless claims were filed, representing a week-on-week increase of 135,000.

The previous week, the lowest number recorded since mid-March, 963,000, signaled the virus-hit labor market is on the mend.

However, claims entered a downward trend as the economy started moving toward reopening.

The US is the worst-hit country by the pandemic, with more than 5.5 million cases and an excess of 173,200 fatalities, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. In all, more than 1.9 million recoveries have been recorded.