The number of jobless in Hawaii held steady in May at 4.1 percent for the fifth consecutive month.

The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said Thursday that 648,750 people were employed and 27,400 were unemployed in May for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 676,200.

“This is kind of a sweet spot,” said Lawrence Boyd, a labor economist at the University of Hawaii-West Oahu. “You wouldn’t expect it to be much lower, and if it was much lower, you’d see people complain more about high prices and about inflation taking off.”

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in May, up from 5.4 percent in April.

In another measure of employment, nonfarm jobs rose by 1,700 in May over April and jumped by 8,500 year over year. The biggest employment gain was in professional and business services, which added 800 jobs, followed by trade, transportation and utilities and other services that each increased by 700. Construction industry jobs grew by 600. The DLIR said building jobs are also reflected in the business services category because many firms use professional employer organizations when hiring workers.

“Essentially what seems to have happened here, and it’s somewhat unusual, is that we’ve had a lot of spending at the state and local level for construction and stuff like the rail. That has actually driven down the jobless numbers,” Boyd said. “We have a very small labor market, so a couple of thousand jobs really makes a difference.”

Meanwhile, government jobs decreased by 1,100, primarily a result of seasonal variation at the Department of Education and the University of Hawaii system, DLIR said.

Initial jobless claims in May decreased by 327, or 19.9 percent, compared with a year ago, and they decreased by 3 percent from April.

Economists consider a jobless rate of around 4 percent to be full employment, or the “natural rate of employment,” meaning the rate at which there’s no involuntary unemployment, Boyd said.

“Basically, all the unemployment you see is people who don’t have the skills to match the jobs being created, or it’s turnover where people leave a job and are getting into another job,” he said.