Washington, Aug 27 : Initial unemployment claims in the US have increased to 353,000 amid a Delta variant-fuelled Covid-19 resurgence, after falling for four straight weeks, the Labour Department reported. In the week ending August 21, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits increased by 4,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 349,000, according to a report released on Thursday by the Department's Bureau of Labour Statistics. In recent months, initial jobless claims have dropped to the lowest levels since March 2020 by multiple times, but the declining trend was repeatedly reversed, indicating a bumpy economic recovery, reports Xinhua news agency. The latest report also showed that the number of people continuing to collect regular state unemployment benefits in the week ending August 14 decreased by 3,000 to 2.86 million. That number peaked in April and May last year, when it was over 20 million. Meanwhile, the total number of people claiming benefits in all programs, state and federal combined, for the week ending August 7, however, increased by 182,165 to 12 million, as the country continued to grapple with the fallout of the pandemic. /IANS