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High-Frequency Update: 7-14-24

July 14, 2024
By George W. Hammond, EBRC director and Eller research professor

U.S. movie box offices sales increased over the year

third-quarter-2020-forecast-update-webinar

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 4,129 for the week ended July 6, down from 4,341 the prior week. That was down 13.7% over the year and down 6.4% from 2019.

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance bounced up to 241,045 for the week ended July 6. That was up from 239,379 the prior week but down 6.6% over the year. Claims were up 3.9% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate dropped to 61.3% for the week ended July 6, down from 71.9% the prior week. That was down 0.8% over the year and down 6.1% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales declined to $241.9 million for the week ended July 11, down from $281.2 million the prior week. That was up 8.9% over the year but down 14.1% from 2019. New movie releases were down 53.1% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput fell to 18.2 million for the week ended July 6, down from 19.8 million the prior week. That was up 8.1% over the year and up 9.5% from 2019.

Arizona new business applications fell to 520 for the week ended July 6. That was down 11.9% 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Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: Reliability of U.S. economic data is in jeopardy, study finds

Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Are workers with a disability facing new opportunities or new challenges? (FRBSL 7/9)

Economy: The mysterious slowdown in U.S. manufacturing productivity (FRBNY 7/11)

Education / early childhood development: Arizona voucher enrollment rises to nearly 100,000, far outstripping predictions (KJZZ 7/7)

Energy / environment / infrastructure: Arizona farmers turn to solar panels to shade crops, save water and generate power (Cronkite 7/8) 

Housing / real estate: Zoning reform made way for an explosion of smaller homes in California. Will it work elsewhere? (Route-Fifty 7/10)

Commercial real estate: Recent trends in banks’ commercial real estate exposure (FRBSL 7/11)

Prices/inflation: Examining U.S. inflation across households grouped by equivalized income (BLS)

Public finance: Gas taxes can’t pay for roads much longer, but Amazon deliveries might (Stateline 7/9)

Wages/income/wealth: Amid a resilient economy, many Americans aren’t ready for a “rainy day” (FRBM 5/31)

Workforce/employment/labor market: Rising immigration has helped cool an overheated labor market (FRBKC 5/22)

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.