Seasonally adjusted initial claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose to 217,000 in the week ended Aug. 31 from the previous week's upwardly revised reading of 216,000, the U.S. Labor Department reported.
The consensus estimate of economists polled by Econoday was for 215,000 claims, which matched the prior week's reading before revision.
The four-week moving average rose to 216,250 from the revised average of 214,750 last week.
In the week ended Aug. 24, the insured employment rate, which denotes the share of the labor force receiving unemployment benefits, was unchanged at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.2%. Insured unemployment cases totaled 1,662,000 during the week, a decrease of 39,000 from the previous week's revised level.
