Seasonally adjusted initial claims for U.S. unemployment benefits came in at 207,000 in the week that ended Sept. 29, down from the previous week's revised level of 215,000, the U.S. Department of Labor reported.

The Econoday consensus forecast was 213,000.

The four-week moving average increased to 207,000 from the previous week's revised average of 206,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate held steady at 1.2% in the week that ended Sept. 22 compared with the previous week. Insured unemployment during the week fell to 1,650,000 from the previous week's revised level of 1,663,000.