By Sarah Chaney

The trend for U.S. workers receiving unemployment benefits in late May will offer insight into how much job losses from the coronavirus and related lockdowns are continuing to ease.

The number of people receiving unemployment benefits, or continuing claims, fell to 21.1 million in the week ended May 16. Another drop could suggest people are being rehired, said Michelle Meyer, chief economist at Bank of America.

"The labor market is healing. We've seen a slowdown in the rate of firing. We've seen a pickup in hiring," said Ms. Meyer. "But there's a lot more progress that needs to be done."

It will probably take years for the economy to fully regain the millions of jobs lost during the pandemic. Protests over the death of George Floyd could delay the economic recovery as large companies including Macy's Inc. and Kroger Co. postponed store reopenings or cut back hours in response to the social unrest.

The number of U.S. workers filing for unemployment benefits last week is expected to continue a decline from earlier in the coronavirus pandemic but remain historically high.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast there were 1.8 million applications for unemployment benefits last week, the fewest since the week ended March 14.

A separate May report on U.S. employment, to be released Friday, will shed light on the magnitude of the employment losses that have occurred during the pandemic. Layoffs have continued and are expected to cause nonfarm payrolls to fall by 8 million in May, after a combined drop of 21.4 million in March and April. The unemployment rate is projected to rise to 19.5% in May from 14.7% in April, which would be the highest for records tracing back to 1948.

Private-sector job losses in May were much less steep than originally anticipated, according to Wednesday's ADP National Employment report, causing some economists to re-evaluate their expectations for monthly payrolls declines.

"I think we're going to see a slowing in the pace of job layoffs, but perhaps a longer period of consecutive monthly declines than we had originally anticipated," said Constance Hunter, chief economist at KPMG LLP.

The ADP report showed the greatest number of job losses in May occurred at large companies with at least 1,000 employees. Private-sector employment declines in May were largest in manufacturing and trade and transportation, while leisure and hospitality, which was hard hit earlier in the crisis, fared better.

States are allowing businesses to reopen and companies are recalling workers to qualify for government-loan forgiveness, though some have said they might need to lay off employees again when the support runs out.

Still, millions of jobless Americans are relying on unemployment benefits as a substitute for their lost income.

Federal and state unemployment payments reached more than $72 billion in the first three weeks of May, compared with $48.4 billion in April, according to a Century Foundation analysis of Treasury Department data.

State labor departments responded to the crisis by reallocating staff from other departments to field unemployment inquiries. Some also turned to technology giants such as Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google to update their decades-old computer systems.

During the crisis, many Americans have waited weeks to receive payments, calling state labor departments hundreds of times a day. Some say they are still experiencing issues with accessing the benefits they expected.

Marti Unger, age 54, received unemployment payments for several weeks through early May. But the Hamilton Township, N.J., resident, who was furloughed from her administrative assistant job in late March, said she confronted an error message when she tried to claim her jobless benefits for the week ended May 16.

She said she hasn't been able to reach her state unemployment agency, delaying receipt of unemployment payments since then as rent and medical bills pile up.

"I have money I'm hanging on to, but I have to watch where I spend it," she said.

Write to Sarah Chaney at sarah.chaney@wsj.com