1.5 million American filed for unemployment last week

An additional 1.5 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The figure reflects a steady decrease in the number of Americans filing for jobless insurance, amid the coronavirus pandemic that hit the U.S. in late March.

The new numbers fall slightly below projected estimates.

More than 40 million unemployment claims have been made since the beginning of the pandemic, though there are just roughly   21.5 million Americans now drawing on those benefits.

Though the jobless numbers continue to trend down, they remain at historically high levels, and states still have backlogs of claims to work through. 

Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an unexpectedly low unemployment rate of 13.3%, which they later corrected to 16.4%, having made a classification error in their calculations. Even the higher number, though, represents a lower rate than in April.