After another sign of job recovery, initial applications unexpectedly rebounded to a two-month high this week.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits for the week of July 17 was 419000, up 59000 from last week, according to data released by the Labor Department on Thursday. Previously, the market forecast was 350000 people.

The number of continued jobless claims fell to 3.236 million in the week ended July 10, compared with a forecast of 3.1 million, compared with a previous value of 3.241 million.

The Dow Jones Industrial average fell slightly after the data were released.

At a time when last week's data raised expectations of a marked improvement in employment conditions, this week's initial applications marked a rebound in nearly two months, the highest since May 15.

In terms of regional distribution, Michigan and Texas had the largest increase in initial applications, while New York and Oklahoma had the biggest declines.

The good news is that the number of renewed claims for unemployment benefits fell by 126000 to about 3.24 million, the lowest level since the epidemic.

Some states have ended epidemic unemployment assistance and emergency unemployment compensation, and the total number of people receiving unemployment benefits fell by 1.26 million in the week ended July 3.

Some experts believe that although the number of initial applications has unexpectedly increased this week, there are many signs that the future employment situation has the potential for a strong recovery.

The employment website Indeed estimates that there were about 9.8 million job openings as of July 16. By contrast, the U.S. Department of Labor counted 9.48 million unemployed as of June, suggesting that there are opportunities for large-scale job matching in the future.

Businesses closed during the outbreak are also reopening: 60502 companies reopened between April and June, the highest number in the past year, according to Yelp.

38725 stores reopened in April alone, the biggest monthly increase since May last year. Among them, the catering and retail industries performed most brightly, with more than 36000 reopened in the second quarter.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist of Pantheon Macroeconomics, said:

Initial claims continue to be affected by periodic adjustments because carmakers restructure and shut down production at different times and to different degrees from year to year.

At the same time, the spread of the Delta mutation is likely to bring further fluctuations to the initial data in the coming months.