NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - New jobless claims showed a larger-than-expected rise in the United States last week, according to a government report Thursday, amid a climate of corporate scandals and a shaky economic recovery.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose 20,000 to 387,00 in the week ended July 27 from a revised 367,000 the prior week, the Labor Department reported.

Economists on average expected 375,000 new claims, according to Briefing.com.

Continued claims, the number of people drawing benefits for more than a week, rose to 3.502 million in the week ended July 20, the latest data available, from a revised 3.49 million in the prior week.