High-Frequency Update: 4-6-25

April 6, 2025

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

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped last week

Third quarter 2020 forecast update webinar

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 3,198 for the week ended March 29, down from 3,777 the prior week. That was down 7.9% over the year and down 14.5% from 2019.

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance ticked up to 200,057 for the week ended March 29, up from 199,900 the prior week. That was up 1.4% over the year and up 8.9% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate declined modestly for the week ended March 29, falling to 65.1% from 66.0% the prior week. That was up 4.5% over the year but down 6.3% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales rose to $102.2 million for the week ended April 3, up from $99.7 million the prior week. That was down 45.4% over the year and down 44.5% from 2019. New movie releases were down 50.0% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput dropped to 17.7 million for the week ended March 29, down from 18.2 million the prior week. That was down 0.6% over the year but up 6.7% from 2019.

Weekly data on Arizona new business applications continue to be published by the Census Bureau, but only on a monthly basis. In February, weekly new business applications ranged from 720 to 810. While new business applications started the month slowly, compared to a year ago, they picked up steam to close out the month.

Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: The impact map of where federal policy, funding and workforce changes are affecting states and local areas this year
Automation / AI: The labor market impact of digital technologies (FRNSL 4/1)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Do low survey response rate threaten data dependence? (FRBSF 3/31)
Economy: Americans rush to buy TVs, soy sauce, Lululemon workout gear (WSJ 4/4)
Education / early childhood development: The origins and evolution of occupational licensing in the United States (FRBM 3/27)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: Arizona battles rising wildfire threat in ‘never-ending kind of year’ as state grows hotter, drier (Cronkite 3/31)
Housing / real estate: Minneapolis becomes fourth city to ban rent price-fixing software (Governing 4/2)
Commercial real estate: Volatile tariffs offer risks and rewards for billion-dollar industrial projects (PBJ 4/2)
Mexico/trade: Trade war escalates as China hits back with 34% tariffs on all U.S. goods (NPR 4/4)
Prices/inflation: How much will tariffs raise prices? Trump’s economists just revealed their answer (NPR 4/3)
Wages/income/wealth: What sources of income to people rely on? (Census 4/2)
Workforce/employment/labor market: State unemployment programs will likely face budget pressures because of federal layoffs (Urban Inst 4/3)

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.