After rampant fraud in Massachusetts briefly boosted claims to a 1-1/2-year high in May before being revised away, economists cautioned against reading too much into the latest rise.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 235,000 claims for the latest week.
Unadjusted claims increased only 10,535 to 219,391 last week, with applications in Ohio surging 6,345 and filings in California shooting up 5,173.
The Federal Reserve is expected to keep its policy rate unchanged next Wednesday for the first time since March 2022 when it embarked on its fastest interest rate hiking campaign since the 1980s.
The U.S. central bank has raised its policy rate by 500 basis points since then.
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Conrad DeQuadros, Unadjusted, Gisela Hoxha, Matthew Martin, Stuart Hoffman, Lucia Mutikani, Chizu Nomiyama, Andrea Ricci
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