Economists were puzzled by the jump in initial claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended April 30, but spring break for New York schools may provide the explanation. Claims rose to 474,000 for the week, up 43,000 from the prior week. A big part of the jump may have been education employees, such as bus drivers and cafeteria workers on spring break in New York, which allows such employees to claim unemployment benefits when school is out of session. Seasonal adjustments usually smooth out jumps to do such factors, but did not do so for the past week.

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N.Y. schools play role in unemployment filing surge