Topeka ? The Kansas unemployment rate rose in May for the second consecutive month to a seasonally adjusted 4.4 percent, reflecting a loss of 3,800 jobs during the month, including 1,500 private sector jobs, the Kansas Department of Labor reported Friday.

Over the past year, the department said, the Kansas economy has added 8,300 jobs, or 0.7 percent, well below the national growth rate of 2.2 percent over the same period.

The Lawrence area unemployment rate jumped three-tenths of a point in May, to 3.9 percent, almost matching the 4 percent jobless rate posted a year earlier.

State officials cited seasonal factors, including an unusual amount of rainfall, for the May decline.

“Changing seasonal factors led to a decline in student workers at the state universities,” said Tyler Tenbrink, senior labor economist for the department. “Also, construction activity slowed in May, likely due to above-average rainfall during the month.”

The two months of rising unemployment rates in Kansas followed four months when the jobless rate had held essentially flat, at 4.2 percent.

The May jobs report was released just days after Republican Gov. Sam Brownback was defending his policies, first enacted in 2012, of slashing income tax rates and eliminating taxes on small business owners as a way of stimulating job growth.

“When we first started down this path, we did a lot of analysis of it, and all the economic modeling said that if you want to create jobs, one of the best things you can do is take your tax off of small business,” Brownback said during a news conference Tuesday, shortly before signing a bill that raises the state sales tax rate while continuing his “glide path to zero” on income taxes. “That is a big net job creator.”

Since January 2013, when the first round of tax cuts took effect, according to state Labor Department figures, the number of private-sector jobs in Kansas has grown about 3.5 percent, while nationally the growth rate has been 4.7 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Brownback also said during his re-election campaign last year that his goal would be to create 100,000 new private-sector jobs during his second term.

Since February, however, Kansas has lost about 5,000 private sector jobs, according to Department of Labor statistics.

Brownback’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest jobs report.

Democratic leaders in the Kansas Legislature also were not immediately available for comment.