High-Frequency Update: 5-25-25

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance ticked down to 3,491 for the week ended May 17, down from 3,575 the prior week. That was down 10.9% over the year and down 18.4% from 2019.

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance also fell for the week ended May 17, reaching 202,088. That was down from 205,723 the prior week but up 4.9% over the year. Claims were also up 5.3% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate rose to 67.2% for the week ended May 17, up from 64.6% the prior week. That was down 0.3% over the year and down 5.1% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales rose to $144.8 million for the week ended May 22, up from $116.1 million the prior week. That was up 11.7% over the year but down 28.9% from 2019. New movie releases were down 40.5% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput rose to 17.7 million for the week ended May 17, down from 17.3 million the prior week. That was down 2.2% over the year but up 5.3% from 2019.

Weekly data on Arizona new business applications continue to be published by the Census Bureau, but only on a monthly basis. In April, weekly new business applications ranged from 730 to 1,010. A business application total of 1,010 was very high and represented an increase over the year of 36.5%.

Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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 the data says about Social Security (Pew 5/20)
Automation / AI: AI is storming workplaces – and barely making a difference, study says (Quartz 5/19)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Children of immigrants in 2022-23 (Urban Inst 5/22)
Economy: The rise in long-term US treasury yields (Brookings 5/22)
Education / early childhood development: School vouchers are rapidly eating into state budgets (Governing 5/21)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: 2 agriculture-to-urban programs explore conserving groundwater in Arizona by retiring farmland (Cronkite 5/16)
Housing / real estate: Homebuying options remain slim for middle-income earners (Stateline 5/23)
Commercial real estate: Office construction dwindles despite tenant demand for high-quality space (PBJ 5/21)
Mexico/trade: What have we learned from the U.S. tariff increases of 2018-19? (FRBSL 5/22)
Prices/inflation: The effects of tariffs on inflation and production costs (FRBSF 5/19)
Public finance: Real state tax revenues decline amid growing fiscal uncertainty (Urban Inst 5/16)
Wages/income/wealth: The pay raise picture is shifting. Here’s where wages are rising the most (PBJ 5/22)
Workforce/employment/labor market: Will anyone take the factory jobs Trump wants to bring back to America? (WSJ 5/19)