The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell modestly last week, remaining within the range of recent years.

Jobless claim filings fell by 6,000 to 219,000 for the week ending March 29, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s less than the 226,000 new applications that analysts forecast.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs, and have remained mostly in a range between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years.

It’s not clear when the federal job cuts ordered by the Trump administration and top adviser Elon Musk will surface in the weekly layoffs data, but some economists have suggested they could show up in the Labor Department’s March jobs report, which comes out Friday. — Associated Press