WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, remaining in the same range of recent years despite a broadly tepid labor market.

The number of Americans filing for jobless aid for the week ending March 14 fell by 8,000 from the previous week to 205,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 215,000 new filings analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting.

Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

The four-week moving average of jobless claims, which softens some of the week-to-week volatility, dipped by 750 to 210,750.

The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending March 7 rose by 10,000 to 1.86 million, the government said.