The data from the Labor Department revealed on Thursday the number of applications for unemployment unexpectedly rose last week, signaling that the U.S. labor market is continuing to struggle in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic

According to the report, the initial claims for unemployment benefits totaled 1,106,000 for the week ended August 15. That brought the number of job losses over the past twenty-two weeks (since the U.S. went into coronavirus lockdown in mid-March) to near 57.4 million.

Economists had expected 925,000 new claims last week.

Claims for the prior week were revised upwardly to 971,000 from the initial estimate of 963,000.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of claims fell to 1,175,750 from an upwardly revised 1,254,750 in the previous week.

Continuing claims decreased to 14,844,000 million from a downwardly revised 15,480,000 in the previous week.