The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the jobless rate, held at 2.6 percent, today's report showed.
Nineteen states and territories reported an increase in claims, while 34 reported a decrease. These data are reported with a one-week lag.
The figures follow statistics on April 6 that showed employers added 120,000 jobs in March, half as many as in February and the fewest in five months.
Bernanke, in a speech to economists on March 26, said the recent employment gains have been a "welcome development. Still, conditions remain far from normal, as shown, for example, by the high level of long-term unemployment and the fact that jobs and hours worked remain well below pre-crisis peaks."
"We cannot yet be sure that the recent pace of improvement in the labor market will be sustained," Bernanke said, adding he was particularly concerned about the number people out of work for six months or longer.
Adecco Group North America, a division of Adecco SA in Glattbrugg, Switzerland, the world's largest provider of temporary employees, said demand for workers is accelerating in some fields.
"We do continue to see increases in the healthcare and manufacturing areas," Janette Marx, a senior vice president at the Melville, New York-based company said in an interview last week. "Those areas definitely have been showing some nice increases."