Initial jobless claims in Florida have slowed a bit in July, while the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday estimated 5,841 unemployment applications were filed last week in the state.

That was down from 6,474 claims during the week that ended July 15.

Over the first three weeks of July, Florida averaged 5,915 claims, down from 6,498 during the first three weeks of June.

The new claims estimate was released after the Florida Department of Commerce last week said Florida maintained a 2.6 percent unemployment rate in June, a rate that has been unchanged since it was 2.7 percent in December.

The June rate represented an estimated 280,000 Floridians qualified as unemployed out of a labor force of 10.998 million.

The national unemployment rate in June was 3.6 percent.

The Department of Labor on Thursday estimated 221,000 first-time jobless claims were filed nationally last week, down 7,000 from the previous week.

The nation has averaged 233,750 claims over the past four weeks.