US unemployment on the increase

The US Labour Department has said the average number of jobless workers filing for initial state unemployment benefits over the past four weeks rose by 1,000 to 426,750 for the week ending July 5.

It is the 19th consecutive week initial jobless claims have been above the psychologically significant 400,000 - which many economists consider the dividing line between overall job growth and job loss.

Meanwhile, the average number of workers collecting state unemployment cheques over the past four weeks rose by about 10,000 to 3.74 million, the most in 20 years.

Economists noted that the data showed continued weakness in the labour market despite early signs of economic recovery.

The figures do not include about 850,000 workers collecting federal employment benefits, which are available only to those who exhaust their state benefits, typically after 26 weeks.

In June, the U.S. employment rate rose to a nine-year high of 6.4 percent.

Nearly 9.3 million Americans are officially counted as unemployed, but not all of them are eligible for unemployment cheques.