High-Frequency Update: 6-23-24

June 23, 2024

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

U.S. movie ticket sales skyrocketed last week

third-quarter-2020-forecast-update-webinar

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 4,025 for the week ended June 15, down from 4,604 the prior week. That was up 1.3% over the year but down 4.6% from 2019.

At 227,213 for the week ended June 15, U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 9.0% over the year and dropped from 236,046 the prior week. Even so, Claims were up 10.3% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate rose to 70.3% for the week ended June 15, up from 69.1% the prior week. That was down 0.7% over the year and down 4.6% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales skyrocketed to $347.7 million for the week ended June 20, with the release of Inside Out 2. That was up 40.6% over the year and up 69.4% from 2019. New movie releases were down 51.3% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput spiked to 19.2 million for the week ended June 15, up from 18.7 million the prior week and up 6.3% over the year. Throughput was also up 6.9% from 2019.

Arizona new business applications dropped to 670 for the week ended June 15, down from 700 the prior week. That was down 5.6% over the year.

Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: Arizona budget squeaks through House and Senate (ADS 6/16)
Automation / AI: The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value (McKinsey 5/30)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: The impact of work from home on interstate migration in the U.S. (FRBSL 6/17)
Economy: Why are overall profits outpacing financing costs? (FRBSF 6/17)
Education / early childhood development: The labor market for childcare workers (FRBC)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: Hobbs under pressure to call special session on groundwater (KJZZ 6/20)
Housing / real estate: 4 takeaways from our homeowners insurance investigation (NYT 5/14)
Prices/inflation: Rent hikes loom, posing threat to inflation fight (WSJ 6/18)
Public finance: The multibillion-dollar implications of EVs for state budgets (Governing 6/20)
Wages/income/wealth: It’s back to reality for cash-strapped consumers as pandemic stimulus payments dry up (6/16)
Workforce/employment/labor market: How an immigration slowdown affects US labor market, wages, economy (FRBA 5/30)

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.