The number of Americans who turned to the government for unemployment benefits exceeded 1 million last week against expectations.
In total, more than 1.1 million people made use of the social safety net last week.
A week earlier, the number of unemployment benefits dropped below 1 million for the first time in months.
Then, according to a revised figure, it concerned 971,000 applications. Economists had expected applications to reach around 920,000 this time.
Since the start of the corona pandemic, tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs, temporarily or otherwise.
The fact that there are still many applications now is due to significant reorganisations announced by companies.