Hawai'i residents aren't as gleeful as they were a month ago. Or at least they aren't as happy about their finances as they were in April.

That's a finding in the latest Happiness Index, a ranking that attempts to measure the financial good fortune of state residents by measuring household income, debt, employment and foreclosures.

Hawai'i tumbled three spots from its fourth-place perch in April's index to seventh place this month. The index, formulated by www.Mainstreet.com, attempts to identify which states are doing the best in the economic downturn.

The Aloha State remained the best in the nation in terms of nonmortgage debt as a percentage of annual income.

But its position worsened from April to May in two other key index measures.

A jump in unemployment to 7.1 percent resulted in the state placing 19th-best in terms of joblessness. In April, it had been the 14th best.

It also dropped in the rankings in terms of foreclosures, falling to 31st best, from 21st.

Nebraska remained ranked the best in terms of financial happiness on the strength of its third place in unemployment and fifth place in terms of nonmortgage debt. It was seventh-lowest in foreclosures.

The worst ranking went to California, given its double-digit unemployment (11.2 percent) and foreclosure problem.

The ranking differs from another index released in March that also touched on the issue of happiness. That effort, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, ranked Hawai'i second in the nation behind Utah.

The Gallup-Healthways effort looks at how people are doing physically, emotionally, socially and economically, and is designed to be a quality-of-life barometer.