High-Frequency Update: 8-11-24

Aug. 11, 2024

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

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance fell last week

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Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance fell slightly for the week ended August 3, reaching 3,850. That was down from 3,889 the prior week and down 0.3% over the year. Claims were down 1.5% from 2019.

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 203,054 for the week ended August 3, down from 216,643 the prior week. That was down 10.9% over the year but up 12.9% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate dropped to 69.4% for the week ended August 3, down from 72.0% the prior week. That was up 0.7% over the year but down 7.2% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales plummeted to $254.4 million for the week ended August 8, down from $416.8 million the prior week. That was down 6.7% over the year but up 11.8% from 2019. New movie releases were down 55.1% over the year.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput fell to 19.0 million for the week ended August 3, down from 19.5 million the prior week. That was up 5.5% over the year and up 4.7% from 2019.

Arizona new business applications were steady for the week ended August 3, at 650. That was down 4.4% 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Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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

Automation / AI: 10 reasons why AI may be overrated (NPR 8/6)

Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: The Great Migration is largely over, done in by two economic developments (PBJ 8/8)

Economy: Services firms are optimistic for the near future after a year of modest growth (FRBM 8/2)

Education / early childhood development: Charter schools increase college enrollment, despite mixed test scores: a closer look at the benefits of school choice (AIM 8/5)

Energy / environment / infrastructure: Why does building and maintaining highways in the US cost so much? (Brookings 8/5)

Housing / real estate: Household mobility and mortgage rate lock (NBER)

Prices/inflation: Eggs, gasoline and car insurance: where inflation has hit Americans hardest (Pew 8/7)

Public finance: Correlation in state and local tax changes (NBER)

Wages/income/wealth: Is wage growth sustainable? Evidence from real wage growth across groups (FRBM 7/12)

Workforce/employment/labor market: The anatomy of labor demand pre- and post-COVID (FRBNY 8/7)

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.