High-Frequency Update: 10-6-24

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance fell slightly over the week for the week ended September 28, reaching 3,602. That was up 13.7% over the year but down 4.1% from 2019.

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance fell modestly to 180,647 for the week ended September 28, down from 181,713 the prior week. That was up 3.4% over the year and up 4.4% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate fell slightly for the week ended September 28, to 68.4%. That was down from 68.9% the prior week. The occupancy rate was up 2.5% over the year but down 3.9% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales rose to $120.6 million for the week ended October 3, up from $107.3 million the prior week. That was up 6.3% over the year but down 8.1% from 2019. New movie releases were down 44.1% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput dropped to 16.9 million for the week ended September 28, down from 17.1 million the prior week. That was up 0.9% over the year and up 4.1% from 2019.

Weekly data Arizona new business applications will continue to be published by the Census Bureau, but only on a monthly basis. We should have weekly data for September in early October. Stay tuned.

Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.

As of October 15, 2022, Google stopped updating mobility data.

Key News Articles and Research (subscription may be required)

Curated by Valorie Rice, Senior Business Information Specialist

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Automation / AI: Exposure to generative AI and expectations about inequality (FRBNY 10/2)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Where Americans have been moving into disaster-prone areas (NYT 9/30)
Economy: U*= √uv: the full-employment rate of unemployment in the United States (Brookings 9/25)
Education / early childhood development: How did community college students fare after COVID-19 disruptions? A first look at the BPS:20/22 (FRBR 9/30)
Energy / environment / infrastructure:  Retail electricity prices closely tracked inflation over the last 10 years (EIA 9/11)
Housing / real estate: Flood risk outside flood zones – a look at mortgage lending in risky areas (FRBNY 9/25)
Prices/inflation:  A model-based perspective on inflation and the distribution of relative price changes (FRBR)
Public finance: Fixing Social Security: the window is closing (Milken Rev 9/9)
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Workforce/employment/labor market: How aware is the public of labor market conditions? (FRBSF 9/30)