High-Frequency Update: 5-31-26

Today

By George W. Hammond, EBRC research professor

U.S. TSA traveler throughput spiked last week

Third quarter 2020 forecast update webinar

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance ticked down to 3,029 for the week ended May 23, down from 3,054 the prior week. That was down 2.05% over the year and down 26.6% from 2019.

U.S. weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 191,134 for the week ended May 23, up from 186,338 the prior week. That was down 9.1% over the year and down 3.6% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate fell to 67.9% for the week ended May 23, down from 68.2% the prior week. That was up 0.6% over the year but down 4.6% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales rose to $272.2 million for the week ended May 28, up from $158.7 million the prior week. That was down 31.7% over the year and down 4.0% from 2019. New movie releases were down 54.5% 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Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: Why some Canadians are avoiding the US (ADS 5/27)
Automation / AI: AI use at U.S. businesses (Census 5/26)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Food providers report more clients as AZ SNAP caseload cut in half (AZPM 5/22)
Federal statistics: Restoring trust in economic statistics: why it matters and how we fix it (Brookings 5/26)
Economy: Have we entered an era of high productivity growth? (FRBSF 5/26)
Education / early childhood development: Federal education support centers still find key state gaps (RAND 5/23)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: Tucson, Phoenix create water-sharing plan as Colorado River shrinks (ADS 5/24)
Housing / real estate: What could a landmark federal housing bill mean for southern Arizona? (AZPM 5/29)
Commercial real estate: Empty federal buildings are a growing problem – and an opportunity (CSM 5/29)
Mexico/trade: Mapped: The states landing the most foreign investment (Visual Capitalist 4/28)
Prices/inflation: Key inflation gauge worsens as Americans’ income and spending power erodes (AP 5/28)
Public finance: Supervisors advance $1.8B Pima County budget plan (ADS 5/27)
Wages/income/wealth: Assessing the current state of wage inflation (FRBNY 5/26)
Workforce/employment/labor market: Phoenix built an empire of cubicle jobs. AI is coming to tear it down (WSJ 5/26)

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.