Another 2.98 million Americans sought unemployment benefits last week as the economic toll from the coronavirus continued to mount.
The new applications brought the total number of unemployment claims since mid-March to 36.5 million, reports BBC.
This is the fourth week that the number of new claims declined, but the US Labor Department said unemployment was still rising at a higher rate than analysts expected.
Figures for the month of April showed the unemployment rate had risen to 14.7%, with 20.5 million jobs lost over the month - the worst unemployment seen since the Great Depression.