WASHINGTON U.S. job openings dropped in May, but remained at higher levels, indicating that labor market conditions were slowly easing.

Job openings, a measure of labor demand, fell 496,000 to 9.824 million by the last day of May, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Thursday.

Data for April was revised up to show 10.320 million job openings instead of the previously reported 10.1 million. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 9.935 million job openings.

The labor market has remained resilient despite 500 basis points worth of interest rate increases from the Fed since March 2022, when the U.S. central bank embarked on its fastest monetary policy tightening campaign in more than 40 years to curb inflation.

A survey last month showed consumers' perceptions of the labor market were more upbeat in June relative to May.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)