U.S. job openings unexpectedly rose in May, interrupting a months-long downtrend that underscored a gradual slowdown in labor demand.

Available positions increased to 8.14 million from a downwardly revised 7.92 million reading in the prior month that was the lowest in three years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed Tuesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 7.95 million openings.

Both hiring and layoffs picked up in a sign of churn in the job market. The quits rate was unchanged.

The number of vacancies per unemployed worker, a ratio the Federal Reserve watches closely, held at 1.2 and matched the lowest since June 2021. At its peak in 2022, the ratio was 2 to 1.

Speaking Tuesday at a European central bank conference in Portugal, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said there’s been a “substantial” move toward better balance in the labor market between the supply of and demand for workers.