The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which tracks business conditions and future projections on an ongoing basis. The survey covers all employer businesses in the United States except farms, including those with multiple locations.
According to the Census Bureau, “BTOS provides insight into the state of the economy by providing continuous, timely data for key economic measures every two weeks. By providing continuous data with geographic and subsector detail, BTOS captures the impact of events like natural disasters and economic crises and assists in monitoring recovery efforts.”
The BTOS sample includes about 1.2 million businesses, divided into six panels of roughly 200,000 each. These panels are surveyed every 12 weeks over a year. On average, it takes respondents nine minutes to complete the survey.
Data collected include information on revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories. The results are released every two weeks and broken down by sector, state, and the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the country.
The Census Bureau noted that new questions related to artificial intelligence were added to the survey on November 17; findings from these questions will be published in 2026.
“Survey results give local, state and federal officials essential, real-time data to aid in policymaking and decision-making. In addition, the information aids businesses in making economic decisions,” according to the agency.
There is no formal news release accompanying this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
