That's bad news, Hawaii economists say, because even though there are signs that the isle economy is improving, businesses aren't creating jobs.

"We're still losing jobs," said Leroy Laney, chief economist at First Hawaiian Bank. "This is the fourth year of losing jobs. That continues and it's not a good environment," he said.

Paul Brewbaker, chief economist at Bank of Hawaii, agreed.

In August, the nonagricultural job count was 522,000, compared with 525,900 in the previous August and 524,600 in July, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said yesterday. That's a decline of 0.7 percent over a 12-month period.

Brewbaker said that's better than the 1 percent or 1.5 percent rate of the previous couple of years. "But that's a precious thin sliver of optimism, that the rate of decline isn't as high," he said. "I think we still have cause to be concerned."

The unemployment rate, normally higher in August than at other times of the year, was unchanged from a year earlier at 6.5 percent. Much of the unemployment was due to the end of summer jobs, the department said.

Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent, a drop of half a percentage point from 5.6 percent a year earlier.

Compared with July, the number of Hawaii workers with jobs last month declined by 6,000 to 554,100, the department said.

That figure is developed from a survey of households to find out how many residents are working. The survey indicated 38,300 people were out of work in August, up 400 from July.

Laney said it is not as good an indicator as the job count figure, which is obtained by asking businesses how many people they have on the payroll.

Oahu had the lowest August jobless level, 5.4 percent, up from 5.1 percent in 1995. The Maui rate, 6.4 percent, was down from 7.4 percent. Lanai was at 6.6 percent, up from 5.1 percent. Kauai's 11.1 percent rate was unchanged from 1995. Molokai's rate was 17.3 percent, up from 13.8 percent.