More than 3.5 million Americans are still collecting traditional state unemployment benefits as the number of people seeking new jobless aid claims rose last week for the first time in two months. The Labor Department said on Thursday that the number of Americans receiving continued unemployment benefits rose slightly by 1,000 to just over 3.5 million for the week ending June 5. Meanwhile, new weekly applications for unemployment aid rose 37,000 to 412,000 last week despite widespread evidence that the economy and the job market are rebounding steadily from the pandemic recession.