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High-Frequency Update: 8-25-24

Aug. 25, 2024
By George W. Hammond, EBRC director and Eller research professor

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate remains below pre-pandemic levels

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Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 3,851 for the week ended August 17, down from 4,212 the prior week. That was up 6.2% over the year and up 9.6% from 2019.

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 191,576 for the week ended August 17, down 4.0% over the year and down from 200,846 the prior week. That was up 11.8% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate fell to 66.9% for the week ended August 17, down from 68.7% the prior week. That was down 0.1% over the year and down 6.7% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales declined to $199.1 million for the week ended August 22, down from $232.0 million the prior week. That was up 41.6% over the year and up 11.9% from 2019. New movie releases were down 50.0% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput fell to 18.0 million for the week ended August 17, down from 18.5 million the prior week. That was up 4.7% over the year and up 4.1% from 2019.

Arizona new business applications fell to 610 for the week ended August 17, down from 640 the prior week. That was down 10.3% 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Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: East Valley cities, developers see strong interest from advanced manufacturers (PBJ 8/14)
Aautomation / AI: AI is already fueling layoffs, but there’s a silver lining for some workers (PBJ 8/20)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Arizona counties aren’t among the healthiest in the US, new study shows. Here’s why (AR 8/21)
Economy: Employment trends before and after business expansion peaks (FRBSL 8/20)
Education / early childhood development: Millions of campaign dollars aimed at tilting school voucher battle are flowing into state races (AP 8/12)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: Biden administration announces more than $2 billion in grants to boost US power grid (Route-Fifty 8/14)
Housing / real estate: Justice Department accuses RealPage of a scheme to help landlords hike rents in antitrust lawsuit (AP 8/23)
Prices/inflation: Climate change and inflation: how should the Fed respond? (Milken Review 7/23)
Wages/income/wealth: Pandemic-era liquid wealth is running dry (FRBSF 8/12)
Workforce/employment/labor market: Disemployment effects of unemployment insurance: a meta-analysis (NBER)

 

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.