NEW YORK CITY, New York: In April, U.S. job openings decreased, but remained at considerably high levels, indicating that salaries will continue to increase as companies scramble to hire workers and inflation remains an issue.

This week, the Labor Department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey also reported that layoffs are at a record low, highlighting the tightness of the labor market.

In its efforts to keep inflation down to its 2 percent target, the Federal Reserve has sought to bring demand and supply of labor back in line without pushing up the unemployment rate, but there are few signs its aggressive monetary policy stance is cooling demand in the overall economy.

In May, activity at factories increased as demand for goods remained strong, according to other data, but fears of an imminent recession have been raised.

"Today's reports show the economy is not slowing appreciably and the labor market remains very strong," said Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS in New York, according to Reuters.

On the last day of April, job openings declined by 455,000 to 11.4 million, in line with economists' expectations, while data for March was revised higher to show a record 11.855 million vacancies, instead of the previously reported 11.5 million.

Last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell described the level of job openings as "extraordinarily high," adding, "There is a path by which we would be able to have demand moderate in the labor market and therefore have vacancies come down without unemployment going up."

In April, the jobless rate held at a two-year low of 3.6 percent.

The Fed is expected to increase the overnight rate by half a percentage point at both its June and July meetings, and also raised its policy interest rate by 75 basis points since March.