High-Frequency Update: 4-20-25

April 20, 2025

By George W. Hammond, EBRC director and Eller research professor

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance rose last week

Third quarter 2020 forecast update webinar

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 4,018 for the week ended April 12, up from 3,801 the prior week. That was down 14.8% over the year and down 31.3% from 2019.

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 219,710 for the week ended April 12, up from 216,534 the prior week. That was up 5.1% over the year and up 11.9% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate has not been reported for the week ended April 12.

U.S. movie box office sales dropped to $215.4 million for the week ended April 17, down from a revised $254.5 million the prior week. That was up 113.3% over the year and up 33.0% from 2019. New movie releases were down 58.0% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput rose to 17.4 million for the week ended April 12, up from 17.1 million the prior week. That was up 1.1% over the year and up 6.6% from 2019.

Weekly data on Arizona new business applications continue to be published by the Census Bureau, but only on a monthly basis. In March, weekly new business applications ranged from 1,100 to 720. A business application total of 1,100 was very high and represented an increase over the year of 59.4%.

Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: Visualizing America’s $29 trillion economy by state (Visual Capitalist)
Automation / AI: Latino workers in Arizona face the highest risk of job automation, report finds (AZPM 4/18)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Recent immigration brought a population rebound to America’s major metro areas, new census data show (Brookings 4/10)
Economy: Retail sales jump as people rush to buy cars ahead of tariffs (NPR 4/16)
Education / early childhood development: Texas poised to create the largest voucher program in the country (Governing 4/18)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: As demand for AI rises, so do power thirsty data centers (Stateline 4/10)
Housing / real estate: The gap between wages and housing prices is widening, fueling the affordability crisis (The Conversation 4/16)
Commercial real estate: Apartment developers who overbuilt luck out with tariffs (WSJ 4/15)
Mexico/trade: Here’s what’s about to become more expensive with the next round of tariffs (CNN 4/15)
Prices/inflation: Trade costs and inflation dynamics (FRBD)
Public finance: Opinion: State and local fiscal fallout from a Trumpian economy (Governing 4/15)
Wages/income/wealth: Measuring income and income inequality (NBER)
Workforce/employment/labor market: Breakeven employment growth: a simple but useful benchmark (FRBSL 4/15)

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.