(The Center Square) – About 837,000 U.S. workers filed new unemployment claims last week as the overall unemployment rate continues its slow decline.

The numbers for the week ending Sept. 26 don’t include new claims from California, which paused its reporting for two weeks as it works on a backlog of benefits and institutes new fraud prevention measures.

“Recognizing that the pause will likely result in significant week to week swings in initial claims for California and the nation unrelated to any changes in economic conditions, California’s initial claims published in the UI Claims News Release will reflect the level reported during the last week prior to the pause,” the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday.

The advance seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.1 percent for the week ending Sept. 19, down 0.6 percentage points from the previous week’s revised rate, which was revised up to 8.7 percent, the labor department reported.

In late March, when government restrictions shutting down businesses deemed nonessential to help slow the spread of COVD-19 were first put into place, new weekly unemployment claims peaked at more than 6 million.