High-Frequency Update: 6-29-25

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 3,417 for the week ended June 21, down from 3,797 the prior week. That was down 15.7% over the year and down 18.2% from 2019.

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 227,080 for the week ended June 21, down from 236,518 the prior week. That was up 0.9% over the year and up 0.6% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate ticked up to 70.5% for the week ended June 21, up from 68.6% the prior week. That was up 1.4% but down 6.6% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales fell to $188.6 million for the week ended June 26, down from $231.2 million the prior week. That was down 18.9% over the year and down 40.4% from 2019. New movie releases were down 46.9% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput rose to 19.2 million for the week ended June 21, up from 18.8 million the prior week. That was up 0.5% over the year and up 5.4% from 2019.

Weekly data on Arizona new business applications continue to be published by the Census Bureau, but only on a monthly basis. In May, weekly new business applications ranged from 670 to 870. Overall, applications were up significantly over the year in May.

Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: Tariffs are encouraging companies to ‘reshore’ jobs to US. Here’s where AZ ranks (AR 6/13)
Automation / AI: Will AI eat the internet? (ITPro)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Proposed federal budget signals cuts to core economic data capacity (C2ER 6/6)
Economy: Americans turn cautious and retail sales slide after a spring rush to beat tariffs (AP 6/17)
Education / early childhood development: Perceptions of US public schools’ political leanings and the federal role in education (Brookings 6/17)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: Parts of Sabino Canyon, Mt. Lemmon, others could be sold under Senate bill (ADS 6/16)
Housing / real estate: Homeowners insurance in an era of climate change (Brookings 6/17)
Commercial real estate: Developers are finally dealing with the office-oversupply problem (WSJ 6/17)
Mexico/trade: Import prices held steady in May (WSJ 6/17)
Prices/inflation: Oil prices climb as Trump calls for Iran’s ‘surrender’ (NYT 6/17)
Public finance: The path to record deficits (WSJ 6/18)
Wages/income/wealth: More than 1,000 Americans per day earned millionaire status in 2024 (Forbes 6/20)
Workforce/employment/labor market: Employment records: the missing piece in the US labor market? (Brookings 6/13)