The number of new applications for unemployment benefits rose 898,000 last week, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.

Forecasters had projected 825,000 new jobless claims.

In addition to claims for regular benefits, more than 370,000 workers filed new claims for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provides for unemployment insurance for people sidelined by the epidemic who normally wouldn’t be eligible for regular benefits, such as gig workers whose business dried up. Combining both regular and PUA claims, over roughly 1.3 million jobless workers filed for relief last week.

There is also the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program that extends unemployment benefits for an additional 13 weeks. For the week ending, Sept. 26, over 2.7 million jobless workers were receiving this benefit.

Both of these programs will expire on Dec. 31 if Washington fails to extend them, meaning that roughly three million jobless workers will have no income source being provided to them by the federal government in the new year.

Thursday’s report indicates that the recovery from pandemic-induced layoffs is slowing, if not reversing. The last significant drop in new regular claims occurred in the second week of August, when jobless applications dropped before a million for the first time since the pandemic hit the country in March. In recent weeks, new claims have hovered in the 800,000s.

The stalled decline in jobless claims comes as jobs gains have cooled.

The economy added 661,000 jobs in September, much lower than in prior months.

Over a million jobs were created in August, and July saw an increase of 1.8 million. While these gains would be considered large by historical standards, they were much less than the 7.3 million jobs created in May and June.

Mark Hamrick, Bankrate’s senior economic analyst, said the reason for the slowdown in hiring is that businesses are still exposed to the coronavirus. That has postponed hiring additional workers. One example of this is the restaurant industry, where owners have been unable to reopen their dining rooms and therefore cannot rehire laid-off staff.