U.S. filings for unemployment benefits ticked up by 1,000 to 218,000 in the week ended July 26, undershooting economists’ projection of 224,000, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. The prior week’s figure of 217,000 was unrevised. Continuing claims, a proxy for the total number of people receiving unemployment assistance, held steady at 1.946 million for the week ended July 19. That reading was also below the consensus estimate of 1.953 million and has hovered just under the two-million mark for the past month, down from 1.974 million in mid-June. Separately, the Employment Cost Index, a broad gauge of wage and benefit growth, rose 0.9% in the second quarter, matching the first-quarter pace and coming in slightly above the 0.8% forecast.