Hawaii’s unemployment rate dropped in August to a 17-month low of 7% — its seventh consecutive monthly decline — while job growth stalled due to a larger-than-typical summertime release of workers in the Department of Education.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate declined three-tenths of a percentage point from 7.3% in July, according to data released today by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. A decline of 5,700 nonagricultural payroll jobs in August from the previous month was primarily due to the contraction in the DOE staff.

“The labor market continues to improve with increases in labor force and employment and the reduction in unemployment,” DBEDT chief economist Eugene Tian said in an email. “The data indicates that most of the employment gains were with self-employment.”

Tian said state government jobs — mainly from DOE — accounted for 86% of the total decline in the workforce.

Hawaii’s jobless rate still trails the U.S. rate, which fell in August to 5.2% from 5.4%. However, Hawaii continues to distance itself from once having the highest unemployment rate in the country. As of July, Nevada had the highest jobless rate of 7.7% with California, New Mexico and New York tied for second at 7.6%. The U.S. Department of Labor will release the August numbers for all the states on Friday.