US job openings unexpectedly rise in April

STORY: More signs of resilience in the U.S. labor market.

A report out Wednesday showed job openings unexpectedly rose in April, while data for the prior month was revised higher.

Openings in April hit 10.1 million which was well above the forecast for about 9.4 million according to economists polled by Reuters. That works out to about 1.8 open jobs for each unemployed job-seeker.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and other policymakers have paid particular attention to the statistic, and they would like to see it back to pre-pandemic levels of around 1.2.

Expectations for another interest rate increase rose following the release of this report.

Comments from Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester may have contributed as well. She told the Financial Times in a story out Wednesday that she sees no "compelling" reason to wait to implement another hike.

The May jobs report out Friday will provide more details on the state of the labor market.