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High-Frequency Update: 8-4-24

Aug. 4, 2024
By George W. Hammond, EBRC director and Eller research professor

U.S. movie box office sales spiked last week

third-quarter-2020-forecast-update-webinar

Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 3,771 for the week ended July 27, down from 4,384 the prior week. That down 4.1% over the year and down 6.1% from 2019.

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance fell modestly to 215,827 for the week ended July 27. That was down from 225,839 the prior week but up 5.0% over the year and up 20.6% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate ticked down to 72.0% for the week ended July 27. That was down from 73.5% the prior week and down 0.3% over the year. The rate was also down 7.1% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales spiked to $416.6 million for the week ended August 1, reflecting the release of Deadpool & Wolverine. That was up from $229.5 million the prior week and up 21.1% over the year. Sales were also up 65.2% from 2019. New movie releases were down 48.3% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput rose modestly for the week ended July 27, reaching 19.5 million. That was up from 19.2 million the prior week and up 7.4% over the year. Throughput was up 6.9% from 2019.

Arizona new business applications rose to 650 for the week ended July 27, up from 640 the prior week. That was down 9.7% 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Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: Post-pandemic entrepreneurial growth (Univ of IL 7/22)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Immigration patterns across selected U.S. states (FRBSL 8/1)
Economy: Automakers hit ‘significant storm,’ as buyers reject lofty prices at time of huge capital outlays (AP 7/25) 

Education / early childhood development: Preparing for work: the demand for postsecondary education and how it’s changing (FRBR)

Energy / environment / infrastructure: How economic damage will drive climate migration (Bloomberg 7/30)
Housing / real estate: Why housing prices are on the rise in metro Phoenix (PBJ 7/30)
Prices/inflation: Why doesn’t CPI rent look like alternative rent indices? (FRBC 7/15)
Public finance: Long fiscal COVID: the lingering governmental disease (Governing 8/1)
Wages/income/wealth: Has pay kept up with inflation? (Brookings 7/31)
Workforce/employment/labor market: Prime-age women are still driving the labor market recovery (Hamilton 7/26)

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.