High-Frequency Update: 12-7-25

Dec. 7, 2025

By George W. Hammond, EBRC research professor

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance drop during the holiday week

Third quarter 2020 forecast update webinar

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 1,533 for the week ended November 29, down from 2,368 the week before. That was down 22.7% over the year and down 39.3% from 2019.

U.S. weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 197,221 for the week ended November 29, down from 246,640 the prior week. That was down 6.6% over the year and down 9.0% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate fell to 49.8% for the week ended November 29, down from 58.2% the prior week. That was down 0.4% over the year and down 1.6% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales dropped to $227.8 million for the week ended December 4, down from $324.8 million the prior week. That was down 32.7% over the year but up 1.1% from 2019. New movie releases were down 43.6% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput rose to 17.3 million for the week ended November 29, up from 16.6 million the prior week. That was down 0.4% over the year but up 8.9% 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Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: What are Trump accounts? What are Baby Bonds? (Brookings 12/4)
Automation / AI: Occupational exposure to generative artificial intelligence in the Third Federal Reserve District (FRBP)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: The great reshuffle: remote work and residential sorting (FRBP)
Economy: Here’s why everyone’s talking about the ‘K-shaped’ economy (AP 12/1)
Education / early childhood development: Early care and education for infants and toddlers in the US (Urban Inst 12/4)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: Future data centers are driving up forecasts for energy demand. States want proof they’ll get built (AP 11/14)
Housing / real estate: The price of housing in the United States, 1890-2006 (FRBP)
Mexico/trade: The economic effects of tariffs (FRBSF 11/24)
Prices/inflation: How businesses set prices – in their own words (FRBNY 11/24)
Public finance: States brace for budget shock amid federal changes (Governing 12/1)
Wages/income/wealth: Nearly 1 in 5 Arizona borrowers are months behind on student loans (AR 12/4)
Workforce/employment/labor market: Economic warning sign: holiday jobs are tougher to find (CNN 12/2)

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.