WASHINGTON (AP)  The number of Americans filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose last week, while the total number of people continuing to receive benefits set a record high, the government said Thursday.

The Labor Department reported that first-time requests for unemployment insurance increased to 654,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 645,000, above analysts’ expectations.

The number of people receiving benefits for more than a week increased by 193,000, to 5.3 million, the most on record dating back to 1967. That is the sixth time in the last seven weeks that the jobless claims rolls have set a new record.

As a proportion of the work force, the department said, the tally of Americans receiving unemployment benefits is the highest since June 1983, when the economy was recovering from a steep recession.