The data from the Labor Department revealed on Thursday the number of applications for unemployment decreased last week but remained above 1 million, as the U.S. labor market is struggling to rebound from its biggest shock in history, caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the report, the initial claims for unemployment benefits totaled 1,006,000 for the week ended August 22. That brought the number of job losses over the past twenty-three weeks (since the U.S. went into coronavirus lockdown in mid-March) to near 58.4 million.

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

Claims for the prior week were revised upwardly to 1,104,000 from the initial estimate of 1,106,000.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of claims fell to 1,068,750 from downwardly revised 1,175,250 in the previous week.

Continuing claims decreased to 14,535,000 million from a downwardly revised 14,758,000 in the previous week.