US initial jobless claims rise by 11,000

ANKARA

The number of Americans filing first-time unemployment claims rose 11,000 to 362,000 last week, according to the Labor Department on Thursday.

Analysts expected 335,000 claims for the week ending Sept. 25. The previous week's figure was unrevised at 351,000.

The unemployment rate fell to 5.2% in August from 5.4% in July, according to the Labor Department.

The world's largest economy added only 235,000 jobs in August and still has 8.4 million unemployed workers as of last month.

More than 22 million people in the US lost their jobs in March and April of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.