Hawaii’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.4 percent in October for the fourth straight month as the uneven nature of the state’s economic recovery kept a lid on any significant job growth.

Although the visitor industry has been posting double-digit gains in arrivals and spending in recent months, the positive momentum has yet to spread through the broader economy. The number of jobs in the Hawaii economy is forecast to fall this year for the third year in a row.

The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations revised Hawaii’s September unemployment rate to 6.4 percent from the 6.3 percent rate originally reported last month. The rate had been trending lower since peaking at 7 percent in the summer of 2009. The rate briefly dipped to 6.3 percent in June 2010 before leveling off at 6.4 percent since then, the DLIR reported.

Hawaii’s unemployment rate remains well below the national rate of 9.6 percent. The state and national jobless numbers are adjusted for seasonal variations.

Of the 632,750 workers in Hawaii’s labor force of in October, 592,100 were employed and 40,650 were unemployed, the DLIR reported.

The Hawaii labor force data is based on a telephone survey of households. A separate survey of Hawaii businesses showed that the number of nonfarm payroll jobs rose by 3,600 to 591,700 in October from September.

"Hawaii’s employment situation continues to show steady improvement, with unemployment rates holding steady and private-sector jobs beginning to increase," state Labor Director Pearl Imada Iboshi said in a news release.

The biggest increases were in education and health services, which added 1,500 jobs. There were 700 more jobs reported in the construction industry, while the professional and business services sector added 600 jobs.

Separately, TransUnion LLC said late mortgage payments in Hawaii rose nearly 10 percent in the third quarter from the same period a year earlier, outpacing the national average increase of 3 percent.

The number of borrowers whose mortgage payments are past due by 60 days or more rose to 5.28 percent in Hawaii, up from 4.81 percent in the third quarter of 2009, according to TransUnion. Nationally, the mortgage delinquency rate rose to 6.44 percent of mortgage holders in the third quarter from 6.25 percent a year earlier.