WASHINGTON — U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell last week as layoffs remain at historically low levels.

The number of Americans filing for jobless aid for the week ending Feb. 14 fell by 23,000 to 206,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s significantly fewer than the 225,000 new applications that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast.

Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as representative of 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 tempers some of the week-to-week volatility, decreased by 1,000 to 219,000.

The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Feb. 7 increased to 1.87 million, up 17,000 from the previous week, the government said.