WASHINGTON -- The queue of U.S. job seekers is lengthening in an economy that crawled ahead at a 1.1-percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, government figures showed Thursday.

Latest data confirmed the U.S. economy was expanding too slowly to drive a recovery in the labor market, experts said.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a 1.1-percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, an abrupt slowdown from 5.0-percent growth in the first quarter, AFP quoted the Commerce Department as saying.

The number of people filing new claims for U.S. unemployment benefits breached 400,000 in the week to August 24 for the first time in seven weeks, AFP quoted the government as saying.

"You can produce these sorts of GDP numbers without hiring anybody else," said Wachovia Securities Global economist Jay Bryson. "What you are probably looking at is a recovery very much like the recovery out of the last recession: that is a jobless recovery at least for the first year or two."

On Wall Street, investors disliked the figures.

The Dow Jones industrials average of 30 top stocks fell 23.10 points, or 0.27 percent, to 8,670.99 at the close, recovering from earlier lows.

Economists had been expecting the gross domestic product figure to be revised slightly upwards to show growth of 1.2 percent in the April-June period. Preliminary data were released July 31.

But the government made no change to the overall figure in its latest update.

Separate figures showed the number of job seekers making initial claims for benefits grew 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 403,000 in the week to August 24, the highest number since the week ending July.

Tim O'Neill, Chicago-based chief economist at Bank of Montreal, said the economic growth figures were barely changed.

"The jobless claims (figure) is more worrisome because it is current and it is confirming that the labor market is still sluggish," O'Neill said. "It does suggest that if we get any jobs growth at all it is going to be pretty anemic." The trend growth just to keep the employment rate constant would have to be 150,000 jobs a month, he said. "We are some distance from that still."

Monthly unemployment figures released this month showed the U.S. economy added just 6,000 jobs in July while the unemployment rate held steady at 5.9 percent.