Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress this morning that a weak job market and low inflation would likely allow the central bank to keep interest rates at very low levels for a long time, Reuters reported.

In his first appearance before Congress following a testy confirmation vote in the Senate last month, Bernanke offered a relatively somber assessment of the U.S. economy despite recent signs of strong growth.

The country has lost 8.4 million jobs since the start of the economic downturn, the deepest since the Great Depression. The Fed chief said job losses were abating, but also acknowledged the recession’s toll on American workers.

“Notwithstanding the positive signs, the job market remains quite weak,” Bernanke said in prepared testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

Bernanke told lawmakers that he stood prepared to continue supporting the economy with extraordinary stimulus for some time, but also argued that the Fed possesses a broad array of tools to remove such accommodation when the time is right.

“The Federal Reserve will at some point need to begin to tighten monetary conditions,” Bernanke said.