Claims for unemployment benefits remained virtually flat last week, suggesting the U.S. jobs market remains strong even though economic growth has slowed, Industry Week noted.

According to the figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of seasonally adjusted initial claims was 291,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week. That means that the adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8 percent for the week ending March 7, the department added.

The application numbers serve as a proxy for layoffs, The Associated Press explained. Employers who hold on to their workers generally do so because they expect continued economic growth; that, in turn, translates into likely increases in hiring.

Experts closely watch the total number of claims, as figures below the 300,000 threshold are widely viewed as consistent with healthy job gains.

The Labor Department's report contrasts with a warning issued on Wednesday by the Federal Reserve, which said that economic growth has lost some momentum since the beginning of the year.

Ian Shepherdson, the chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, told the news service that the discrepancy was noteworthy.

"These (Labor) data appear to defy" the Fed's statement, Shepherdson said. "So far, though, we see no sign of slower hiring either."

Janet Yellen on Wednesday announced there would be no raise in the interest rate despite the continuing uptick in the jobs market, Industry Week recalled. The Fed chair downgraded its economic growth and inflation projection, Reuters added.

The central bank noted that U.S. growth has "moderated somewhat," a departure from its view in December, when it had insisted that economic activity continued expanding at a solid pace.

Investors, meanwhile, noted that the Fed had dropped the term "patient" from its rate-guidance language -- an indication that it may want to make rate decisions on a meeting-by-meeting basis. Yellen, though, warned market watchers not to read too much into matters of semantics, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation noted.

"Just because we removed the word 'patient' from the statement, doesn't mean we are going to be impatient," she joked.