The data from the Labor Department revealed on Thursday the number of applications for unemployment was higher than expected last week as the U.S. continues to grapple with the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the report, the initial claims for unemployment benefits totaled 1,300,000 for the week ended July 11. That brought the number of job losses over the past seventeen weeks (since the U.S. went into coronavirus lockdown in mid-March) to nearly 51.3 million.

Economists had expected 1,250,000 new claims last week.

Claims for the prior week were revised downwardly to 1,310,000 from the initial estimate of 1,314,000.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of claims fell to 1,375,000 from a downwardly revised 1,435,000 in the previous week.

Continuing claims decreased to 17,338,000 million from a downwardly revised 17,760,000 in the previous week.