High-Frequency Update: 12-21-25

Dec. 21, 2025

By George W. Hammond, EBRC research professor

Arizona new business applications remained strong in November

Third quarter 2020 forecast update webinar

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance fell for the week ended December 13, down from 2,614 the prior week. That was down 24.0% over the year and down 34.5% from 2019.

U.S. weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 255,012 for the week ended December 13, down from 314,915 for the prior week. That was up 1.2% over the year but down 5.7% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate ticked up to 58.6% for the week ended December 13, up from 57.2% the prior week. That was down 1.5% over the year and down 3.1% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales plunged to $103.5 million for the week ended December 18, down from $197.9 million the prior week. That was down 20.4% over the year and down 36.2% from 2019. New movie releases were down 33.3% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput dropped to 16.6 million for the week ended December 13, down from 17.3 million the prior week. That was up 0.2% over the year and up 10.1% from 2019.

Weekly data on Arizona new business applications continue to be published by the Census Bureau, but only on a monthly basis. Weekly data for November ranged from a high of 1,660 to a low of 520 (during the holiday week). Overall, new business applications remain strong.

Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: Federal farm payments will help Arizona farmers affected by trade uncertainty, high costs (AZPM 12/9)
Automation / AI: Are students and workers ready for AI? (Brookings 12/5)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: How many people in each state use the ACA marketplace? (Governing 12/10)
Economy: What businesses are saying: the economy kept chugging along (FRBR 12/12)
Education / early childhood development: Scottsdale Unified School District to close 2 elementary schools (AR 12/11)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: There’s more than one way to power data centers (Governing 12/8)
Housing / real estate: Tucson’s ‘middle housing’ plan to alter neighborhood home-building (12/12)
Mexico/trade: Global trade flows show surprising strength despite strain of higher U.S. tariffs (WSJ 12/10)
Workforce/employment/labor market: Fed Chair Jerome Powell says U.S. may be drastically overstating jobs numbers (WSJ 12/10)

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.

Note: See (http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_home_page.html) for further definitions. Regular Gasoline has an antiknock index (average of the research octane rating and the motor octane number) greater than or equal to 85 and less than 88. Octane requirements may vary by altitude.

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.