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High-Frequency Update: 9-1-24

Sept. 1, 2024
By George W. Hammond, EBRC director and Eller research professor

Arizona new business applications spiked last week

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Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped modestly for the week ended August 24 to 3,846. That was down from 3,947 the prior week but up 9.8% over the year. Claims were up 8.8% from 2019.

U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance also fell slightly for the week ended August 24 to 191,835. That was down from 192,463 the prior week and down 0.8% over the year. Claims were up 8.5% from 2019.

The U.S. hotel occupancy rate fell to 66.1% for the week ended August 24, down from 66.9% the prior week. That was up 1.7% over the year but down 5.7% from 2019.

U.S. movie box office sales fell to $126.9 million for the week ended August 29, down from $199.2 the prior week. That was up 1.4% over the year but down 18.7% from 2019. New movie releases were down 53.4% from 2019.

U.S. TSA traveler throughput fell to 17.5 million, down from 18.0 million the prior week. That was up 7.5% over the year and up 4.1% from 2019.

Arizona new business applications spiked to 720 for the week ended August 24, up from 610 the prior week. That was up 1.4% 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Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.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: Arizona deal latest sign of booming demand for sites to power AI (WSJ 8/28)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Rethinking urban and rural distinctions (Census 8/27)
Economy: The geography of unequal recovery (NYT 8/27)
Education / early childhood development: Community colleges drive rebound in higher ed enrollment (Marketplace 8/20)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: Hedge fund’s $100M Arizona farmland buy stirs fears of water grab (ADS 8/26)
Housing / real estate: Housing affordability in America is finally improving. Not so much in these cities (CNN 8/27)
Prices/inflation: The drivers of post-pandemic inflation (NBER)
Public finance: Tucson voters could be asked to raise city sales tax (ADS 8/26)
Wages/income/wealth: Voters will decide minimum wage ballot measures in several states (Stateline 8/27)
Workforce/employment/labor market: Tasks at work: comparative advantage, technology and labor demand (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.