The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which provides ongoing measurements of business conditions and projections across the United States. The survey now includes information from businesses with multiple units or locations.
The BTOS is designed to complement other economic surveys by collecting data on revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories. It covers all employer businesses in the country except for farms, offering insights into economic trends through biweekly updates.
With a sample size of about 1.2 million businesses, the survey divides participants into six panels of roughly 200,000 each. Each panel reports every 12 weeks over a year-long period. According to the Census Bureau, it takes an average respondent about nine minutes to complete the survey.
Data from BTOS are released every two weeks and can be broken down by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. Starting November 17, new questions on artificial intelligence were added to the survey; results from these questions will be published in 2026.
The BTOS provides continuous data that help track how events such as natural disasters or economic crises affect businesses and support monitoring recovery efforts. These results offer local, state, and federal officials real-time information for policymaking while also helping businesses make informed decisions.
There is no separate news release related to this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
