NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - New jobless claims rose in the United States last week, the government said Thursday, as the labor market continued to show signs of a sluggish recovery.

The Labor Department said the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose to 403,000 in the week ended July 6 from a revised 387,000 the prior week. It was the first week in six weeks that new claims were above 400,000, a level that points to a sluggish job market. Economists, on average, expected 390,000 new claims, according to Briefing.com.

"400,000 is sort of a psychological level, though it suggests we're seeing another round of layoffs occurring," David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's, told CNNmoney Morning. "Being marginally above 400,000 is not a big deal, but it's still disturbing -- we'd like the number to go down, not up."

Separately, the Labor Department said its producer price index, a measure of wholesale inflation, rose 0.1 percent in June after falling 0.4 percent in May. Excluding food and energy prices, PPI rose 0.2 percent after being unchanged in May. Economists expected PPI to be unchanged and core PPI to rise 0.1 percent, according to Briefing.com.

"While the rise in core wholesale prices was a bit higher than expected, inflation is not a worry as productivity gains will overwhelm the modest increase in input costs," said Joel Naroff, chief economist and president of Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pa.

And several major U.S. retailers reported on June sales in stores open for a year or more, a key measure of retail performance. The results were mixed, with discounter Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT: up $0.77 to $54.53, Research, Estimates) showing a big gain and several other retailers, including Sears & Roebuck Co. (S: down $1.10 to $48.83, Research, Estimates), Gap Inc. (GPS: down $0.05 to $14.58, Research, Estimates) and Federated Department Stores Inc. (FD: up $0.30 to $38.05, Research, Estimates) showing declines.

The data weighed on U.S. stock prices, which opened lower following Wednesday's big selloff. Treasury bond prices fell.

The jobless claims data follow the Labor Department's report last Friday that the nation's unemployment rate rose to 5.9 percent in June. U.S. businesses cut more than 1.5 million jobs during a recession that began in March 2001 and lately have been able to get more production out of fewer workers, making them reluctant to increase hiring until they see a need to greatly increase production.

Meanwhile, inflation has been consistently low, allowing the Federal Reserve to leave its target for a key short-term interest rate at a 40-year low, helping make the cost of borrowing cheaper and encouraging consumer spending, which makes up about two-thirds of the total economy.

"The Fed will not be worried about inflation yet," Naroff said. "Indeed, the monetary policy makers are probably more concerned about the equity markets meltdown than any minor jump in producer costs. They will do nothing to upset the applecart."

In the jobless claims report, the four-week moving average of new jobless claims, which smoothes out fluctuations in the weekly data, rose to 395,000 last week from a revised 393,000 the prior week.

Continued claims, the number of people drawing benefits for more than a week, fell to 3.64 million in the week ended June 29, the latest data available, from a revised 3.67 million the prior week.

Some economists said last week's jump in jobless claims was due mainly to the annual shutdown of automobile plants to retool them to make new car models. Rather than use up vacation time, plant workers without vacation pay will often file for unemployment benefits.