(The Center Square) – More than 1.5 million American workers filed new unemployment claims last week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, even as state restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 are easing.

More than 45 million claims have been filed in the three months since state and local governments started restrictions that closed businesses deemed nonessential, but millions of those workers have since gone back to work as states began reopening their economies.

The labor department said that for the week ending June 6, 20.5 million Americans were receiving insured unemployment benefits, for a national unemployment rate of 14.1 percent.

For the week ending June 13, 1,508,000 workers filed new claims. California once again led all states with 243,344 new claims filed last week.

The number of new claims has declined each week since peaking in late March at 6.9 million.