High-Frequency Update: 11-23-25

Nov. 23, 2025

By George W. Hammond, EBRC research professor

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance fell last week

Third quarter 2020 forecast update webinar

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 2,233 for the week ended November 15, down from 2,838 the prior week. That was down 20.8% over the year and down 39.7% from 2019.

U.S. weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 216,671 for the week ended November 15, down from 238,766 the prior week. That was up 1.1% over the year but down 4.9% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate fell to 60.9% for the week ended November 15, down from 64.2% the prior week. That was down 3.8% over the year and down 5.1% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales dropped to $98.3 million for the week ended November 20, down from $114.2 million the prior week. That was up 7.8% over the year but down 33.5% from 2019. New movie releases were down 33.0% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput fell to 16.0 million for the week ended November 15, down from 16.4 million the prior week. That was down 4.3% over the year but up 2.0% from 2019.

Weekly data on Arizona new business applications continue to be published by the Census Bureau, but only on a monthly basis. Data for September has not been updated due to the federal government shutdown.

Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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

Arizona and general topics: Leaders gather to address housing challenges (ITB 11/14)
Automation / AI: AI vs. AI: patients deploy bots to battle health insurers that deny care (Stateline 11/20)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: SNAP benefits resumed after shutdown but new work requirements put 124K Arizona recipients at risk (Cronkite 11/20)
Economy: U.S. banks have developed a significant nonbank footprint (FRBNY 11/18)
Education / early childhood development: Arizona has a teacher shortage. The state’s top education officials say this fueled it (AR 11/17)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: The water infrastructure investments states will need (Governing 11/20)
Housing / real estate: A climate ‘shock’ is eroding some home values. New data shows how much (NYT 11/19)
Mexico/trade: How is tariff uncertainty affecting businesses? (FRBB 11/18)
Prices/inflation: Trump, like Biden before him, finds there’s no quick fix on inflation (AP 11/15)
Public finance: Shutdown ends, but more federal chaos looms for states (Stateline 11/14)
Wages/income/wealth: Holiday shoppers in Arizona carry more credit card debt than national average (PBJ 11/17)
Workforce/employment/labor market: The Beveridge Curve’s predictive power: why job vacancy types matter for monetary policy (FRBSL 11/18)

Weekly Indicators

Use your cursor as a tooltip and click on charts to view values. Click on the names of indicators listed at the bottom any chart to switch them on/off to view fewer at one time and make comparisons. Icons allow you to download and share.

Note: The official initial claims for unemployment insurance numbers for the U.S. are released every Thursday morning covering the week ending on the previous Saturday.

The U.S. Census Bureau continues to produce weekly estimates; however, the weekly estimate files are published as part of the Monthly Business Formation Statistics (BFS) Release.One key dataset with these estimates is High-Propensity Business Applications, a subset of total weekly business applications in Arizona that measures the number of applications with a high-propensity of turning into a business with a payroll, based on various factors. These data reflect weekly applications for Employer Identification Numbers (EINs) in Arizona which are likely to result in employment and wages. These include applications: (a) from a corporate entity, (b) that indicate they are hiring employees, purchasing a business or changing organizational type, (c) that provide a first wages-paid date (planned wages); or (d) that have a NAICS industry code in manufacturing (31-33), retail stores (44), health care (62), or restaurants/food service (72). Applications for EINs occur before the jobs and wages are added, so this is a leading indicator. Read more about the Business Application dataset from the U.S. Census Bureau.