By Scott Kanowsky
Investing.com -- The number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance grew by less than expected last week, according to new data from the Labor Department.
Seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims in the U.S. rose to 216,000 during the week ended on December 17, climbing from an upwardly revised level of 214,000 in the prior period. Economists had predicted that the reading would grow even further to 222,000.
The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out volatility in the weekly figure, fell to 221,750, down from 228,000 from the previous week. Continuing claims - a measure of the amount of U.S. residents filing for ongoing unemployment benefits - also dipped to 1,672,000 from 1,678,000.
The data comes a little over a week after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by half a percentage point as part of its bid to cool red-hot price growth. Salaries make up a key part of the costs incurred by the services sector, itself a major driver of recent inflation. The Fed is hoping that higher rates could help loosen the labor market, which may subsequently cause wages to edge lower.