washington feb 1reuters  us job openings unexpectedly rose in december showing demand for labor remains strong despite higher interest rates and mounting fears of a recession potentially keeping the federal reserve on its policy tightening path job openings a measure of labor demand increased 572000 to 110 million on the last day of december the labor department said in its monthly job openings and labor turnover survey or jolts report on wednesday economists polled by reuters had forecast 10250 million job openings federal reserve officials were due to wrap up a twoday policy meeting later on wednesday the us central bank is expected to raise its policy rate by 25 basis points the fed last year raised its policy rate by 425 basis points from near zero to a 425450 range the highest since late 2007 the labor department reported on tuesday that wages and salaries increased in the fourth quarter at their slowest pace in a year