The U.S. Census Bureau has published new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a survey designed to track business conditions and future expectations across the country. The BTOS includes information from multiunit and multilocation businesses, complementing other economic surveys by collecting data on revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories.
According to the Census Bureau, the BTOS is representative of all employer businesses in the United States except for farms. The survey provides ongoing insights into economic trends by delivering updated data every two weeks. With detailed geographic and subsector breakdowns, BTOS helps assess the effects of events such as natural disasters or economic crises and supports monitoring recovery efforts.
The sample size for BTOS is about 1.2 million businesses, with biweekly data collection cycles. These businesses are divided into six panels of approximately 200,000 each; each panel reports every 12 weeks over a year. The Census Bureau estimates that it takes respondents an average of nine minutes to complete the survey.
Survey results will be released every two weeks and made available by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. In November 2025, new questions regarding artificial intelligence were added to the survey; results from these questions are expected to be released in 2026. Local, state, and federal officials use this real-time information for policy decisions while businesses rely on it for economic planning.
There was no accompanying news release for this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
