The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which measures ongoing business conditions and projections across the United States, excluding farms. The BTOS is designed to complement other economic surveys by collecting information on revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories.
According to the Census Bureau, BTOS data represent all employer businesses in the country. The survey provides continuous and timely updates every two weeks on key economic indicators at both geographic and subsector levels. This approach allows for monitoring of how events such as natural disasters or economic crises affect businesses and helps track recovery efforts.
The BTOS sample includes about 1.2 million businesses that participate in biweekly data collection. These are divided into six panels of approximately 200,000 cases each, with each panel reporting every 12 weeks over a year. The Census Bureau estimates that it takes an average respondent around nine minutes to complete the survey.
Data from BTOS will be released every two weeks and will be available by sector, state, and for the 25 most populous metropolitan statistical areas. In November 2025, new questions regarding artificial intelligence were added to the survey; results from these questions are expected to be published in Spring 2026. The findings provide local, state, and federal officials with real-time information useful for policymaking and also help businesses make informed economic decisions.
There is no news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
