WASHINGTON: One million people in the United States made new claims for jobless benefits in the week ended August 22, the Labor Department said on Thursday, a slight improvement from the week prior.

The result was in line with expectations and a decrease of about 100,000 claims from the prior week, however the number of people filing under a special program providing benefits to workers normally ineligible increased by about 82,000 to 607,806 in the latest week.

The US has seen tens of millions of layoffs since mid-March when businesses shut down to stop the coronavirus, though the initial wave has decreased since its peak later that month.