Source: Sharecast
According to the US Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms the number of job openings increased by 5.1% month-on-month to reach 7.769m (consensus: 7.3m).
Hiring on the other hand slipped by 1.7% to reach 5.503m.
The rate of 'quits' or so-called voluntary separations ticked higher by a tenth of a percentage point to 2.1%.
For Nancy Vanden Houten, lead US economist at Oxford Economics, "there was nothing in the May JOLTS report to shake the Federal Reserve out of its wait-and-see mode."
She was still anticipating a first rate cut from the Fed would come in September, but added that there were rising odds that it would be 50 basis points.
Seasonal factors may have inflated the size of the gains, she said, whilst hiring remained "depressed", but so did layoffs so that was less worrisome than would otherwise be the case.
The quits rate meanwhile remained low, signalling that wage growth was not a source of inflationary pressure.