High-Frequency Update: 5-24-26

Today

By George W. Hammond, EBRC research professor

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate rose last week

Third quarter 2020 forecast update webinar

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance ticked down to 3,054 for the week ended May 16, down from 3,094 the prior week. That was down 17.2% over the year and down 28.6% from 2019.

U.S. weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 185,625 for the week ended May 16, down from 191,541 the prior week. That was down 7.5% over the year and down 3.3% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate rose to 68.2% for the week ended May 16, up from 64.8% the prior week. That was up 1.5% over the year but down 3.7% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales fell to $158.6 million for the week ended May 21, down from $216.3 million the prior week. That was up 9.5% over the year but down 22.1% from 2019. New movie releases were down 52.4% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput rose to 19.3 million for the week ended May 23, up from 17.2 million the prior week. That was up 2.3% over the year and up 9.8% 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 April ranged from 820 to 920. Overall, new business applications have been trending up but remain below levels reached in 2023.

Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: 9 Arizona cities named top cities to live in. See how yours ranked (AR 5/20)
Automation / AI: Is optimism for artificial intelligence boosting investment? (FRBSF 5/18)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Arizona has seen one of the sharpest drops in Obamacare enrollment (KJZZ 5/20)
Federal statistics: Trump wants to stop tracking job data by race and sex. This is why. (USA Today 5/20)
Economy: The geography of the startup surge during the pandemic (FRBSL 5/21)
Education / early childhood development: Last bell: Tucson Unified School District weighs school closures, consolidations (ITB 5/15)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: Water users around the west seek billions in federal drought help as Colorado Rive forecast worsens (AZPM 5/20)
Housing / real estate: Builder sentiment posts gain in May but significant affordability challenges persist (NAHB 5/18)
Mexico/trade: Hobbs: Trump administration position on U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal ‘disheartening’ (AZPM 5/19)
Prices/inflation: Surging tomato prices put Tucson restaurants in a pickle (ADS 5/17)
Public finance: U.S. debt is now bigger than the economy. That’s not the real problem (NYT 5/16)
Wages/income/wealth: Honey, who shrunk the U.S. income surplus? (FRBNY 5/18)
Workforce/employment/labor market: How the Trump administration is eroding the immigrant talent pipeline (Brookings 5/21)

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.