Hawaii’s unemployment rate for July rose to 3.5 percent, up from the revised rate of 3.4 percent in June and the highest it has been in nearly a year.

The unemployment rate has be gradually ticking up since it reached a recent low of 3.1 percent in February and March.

Statewide, 660,650 were employed and 23,650 unemployed in July, for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 684,300, the state Department of Labor & Industrial Relations reported today.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in July, the same as in June.