WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials were encouraged last month by evidence the U.S. economy was picking up, but they showed no sign of moving closer to ending their bond purchases or lifting their benchmark short-term interest rate from nearly zero.

“It would likely be some time until substantial further progress toward” the Fed’s goals of maximum employment and inflation at 2% are reached, and “asset purchases would continue at least at the current pace until then,” the Fed said in its March 16-17 meeting minutes, released Wednesday after the customary three-week lag.

The meeting came before the March jobs report, which showed a surprisingly strong 916,000 positions were added that month, and the unemployment rate fell to 6% from 6.2%.

But some Fed bank presidents have stuck to the same message, arguing that the economy still needs to improve further before the central bank will pull back on its support for the economy.