WASHINGTON—U.S. job openings fell in January, but remained near record highs as worker shortages persisted, pointing to a tight labor market that will continue to generate strong wage gains and contribute to keeping inflation high. Job openings, a measure of labor demand, dropped 185,000 to 11.263 million on the last day of January, the Labor Department said on Wednesday in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report. Data for December was revised higher to show a record 11.448 million job openings instead of the previously reported 10.925 million. The government revised the 2021 data. “The labor market is tight as a drum and this means wage pressures and inflation will persist,” said Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS in New York. “Time will tell if war in Europe and plummeting stock prices will slow down the demand for new hires in the months to come.” The …