First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits remained flat in the week ended April 13th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The report said initial jobless claims came in at 212,000, unchanged from the previous week’s revised level. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 215,000 from the 211,000 originally reported for the previous week.

“Jobless claims remain well below levels that would signal a major slowdown in job growth,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

She added, “A strong labor market gives the Federal Reserve the room to put off rate cuts until inflation gets back on a sustainable path to 2%.”

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also came in unchanged from the previous week’s revised average at 214,500.

Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, crept up by 2,000 to 1.812 million in the week ended April 6th.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also rose to 1,805,250, an increase of 4,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 1,801,000.