U.S. job openings slipped in May, but the hiring rate climbed to its highest level in nearly two years, government data showed  Tuesday.

Job openings, a measure of labor demand, dipped to 3.21 million from 3.30 million in April, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.
The job openings rate, a gauge of how many jobs were open at the end of the month, eased to 2.4 percent from 2.5 percent in April.

But hirings rose to 4.50 million from 4.29 million, lifting the rate of hiring to 3.4 percent — the highest since August 2008 — from 3.3 percent in April.