By Scott Kanowsky
Investing.com -- The number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance rose in line with expectations last week, according to data from the Department of Labor on Thursday.
Seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims for the week ending on December 24 increased to 225,000, up from an unrevised level of 216,000 in the prior week.
The four-week moving average, which aims to account for volatility in the weekly figures, dropped slightly to 221,000 from a downwardly updated mark of 221,250.
Meanwhile, continuing claims - a measurement of the amount of U.S. residents filing for ongoing unemployment benefits - edged up to 1.71 million from 1.67M. That figure was above economists' forecasts of 1.69M.