The data from the Labor Department revealed on Thursday the number of applications for unemployment dropped last week from the previous two weeks, but still remained huge, showing that the coronavirus' damage to the U.S. labor market remains profound.

According to the report, the initial claims for unemployment benefits totaled 5,245,000 for the week ended April 11. That brings the number of job losses over the past four weeks to 22 million.

Economists had expected 5,100,000 new claims last week.

Claims for the prior week were revised upwardly to 6,615,000 from the initial estimate of 6,606,000.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of claims jumped to 5,508,500 from 4,267,750 in the previous week, the highest level on the record.