More than 1.1M Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week to more than 1 million, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Initial weekly jobless claims totaled more than 1.1 million for the period ending Aug. 15, bringing the total number of claims to 57.4 million -- more than one-third of the U.S. labor force -- since coronavirus-related lockdowns began in March.

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Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expected 925,000 new claims.

Instead, the rebound marked "a step backward on the path to recovery," said Glassdoor senior economist Daniel Zhao. "The modest jump is a stark reminder that claims will likely encounter some turbulence as they fall, rather than gliding in for a soft landing."

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Last week, the number of Americans filing for jobless aid fell below 1 million for the first time since the pandemic began. While the figure was adjusted upward on Thursday to 971,000, it remains less than that benchmark.

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The latest data nonetheless showed some optimistic indications: Continuing claims, a broader category that measures unemployed workers receiving benefits for longer than a week, totaled 14.84 million, 156,000 less than expected, for the week ending Aug. 8.