The surge in Americans quitting their jobs has abated since peaking during the pandemic, another sign that the labor market is cooling from ultrahot levels as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates.

Americans voluntarily left four million jobs in May, the Labor Department said Thursday. That marked a drop of around 500,000 from 4.5 million in November 2021, the highest level in Labor Department records back to 2000.

The so-called quits rate—the number of resignations as a share of total employment—averaged 2.5% from March to May, down from 3% as recently as April 2022, and only slightly higher than the prepandemic level.