High-Frequency Update: 8-24-25

Aug. 24, 2025

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

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance remain low

Third quarter 2020 forecast update webinar

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance ticked down to 3,229 for the week ended August 16, down from 3,578 the prior week. That was down 18.2% over the year and down 8.1% from 2019.

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 194,920 for the week ended August 16, down from 199,390 the prior week. That was up 1.3% over the year and up 13.7% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate fell to 66.3% for the week ended August 16, down from 68.0% the prior week. That was down 0.9% over the year and down 7.5% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales plunged to $131.8 million for the week ended August 31, down from $197.5 million the prior week. That was down 33.9% over the year and down 25.9% from 2019. New movie releases were down 50.0% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput fell to 18.3 million for the week ended August 16, down from 18.9 million the prior week. That was up 1.5% over the year and up 5.7% from 2019.

Weekly data on Arizona new business applications continue to be published by the Census Bureau, but only on a monthly basis. In July, weekly new business applications ranged from 670 to 830. Overall, applications were up significantly over the year in July.

Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: Phoenix metro dominates economic growth rankings for top 10 cities nationwide (PBJ 8/21)
Automation / AI: Research suggests doctors might quickly become dependent on AI (NPR 8/19)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Does SNAP cover the costs of a meal in your county? (Urban Inst 7/16)
Federal statistics: U.S. unauthorized immigrant population reached a record 14 million in 2023 (Pew 8/21)
Economy: Far fewer Canadians are visiting the U.S. this year, new numbers show (NPR 8/21)
Education / early childhood development: The state of public education in 2025 in five charts (RAND 8/14)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will again get less Colorado River water in 2026 (AP 8/15)
Housing / real estate: Demand for rental housing drives unexpected jump in building (WSJ 8/19)
Mexico/trade: What parts of the United States trade the most? (FRBC)
Prices/inflation: Walmart says tariff costs are rising ‘each week’ and will continue (NPR 8/21)
Public finance: Colorado sags under $1.2 billion loss due to federal tax changes (Governing 8/19)
Wages/income/wealth: Composition-adjusted wage growth: a robust measure from microdata (FRBC)
Workforce/employment/labor market: Nearly 1 in 5 Americans over 65 are still in the workforce (Governing 8/15)

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.