While jobless claims nationally leaped to the highest weekly total since October 2021, Florida last week showed little change in its pace of first-time unemployment applications.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday released a report that estimated 5,134 claims were filed last week in Florida, down from a revised count of 5,765 during the week that ended May 27.

Over the past four weeks, the state has averaged 5,662 new claims. Since the start of the year, the weekly average is 5,711.

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor estimated 261,000 claims were filed nationally last week, an increase of 28,000 from the prior week.

Last week’s total was the most since the week that ended Oct. 30, 2021, when 264,000 claims were posted.

Florida had a 2.6 percent unemployment rate in April, with an estimated 281,000 people qualified as out-of-work from a labor force of 10.96 million.

The state will release a May report on June 16.