The data from the Labor Department revealed on Thursday the number of applications for unemployment reduced last week to the lowest level since the U.S. economy went into lockdown made to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, but still remained high.

According to the report, the initial claims for unemployment benefits totaled 2,981,000 for the week ended May 9. That brings the number of job losses over the past seven weeks to near 36.5 million.

Economists had expected 2,500,000 new claims last week.

Claims for the prior week were revised upwardly to 3,176,000 from the initial estimate of 3,169,000.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of claims fell to 3,616,500 from a revised 4,180,500 in the previous week. That was the third straight weekly decline.