Florida continues to see relatively little change in the pace of unemployment claims.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday released a report that estimated 5,523 first-time unemployment claims were filed last week in Florida, down from 5,879 during the week that ended May 20.

Florida has averaged 5,665 weekly claims since mid-November, following a brief spike after Hurricane Ian caused massive damage in late September.

Nationally, 232,000 first-time claims were filed last week, up 2,000 from the previous week.

The country has averaged 229,500 claims over four weeks. Florida in April had a 2.6 percent unemployment rate, with an estimated 281,000 Floridians qualified as out-of-work from a labor force of 10.96 million.

The state will release a May report on June 16.