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 BTOS covers all employer businesses except farms and now includes information from multiunit or multilocation companies.
The survey collects key economic data, such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories, every two weeks. This approach is designed to offer timely insights into the economy at both geographic and industry subsector levels. The continuous nature of BTOS data collection allows for monitoring the effects of events like natural disasters or economic crises and supports efforts to track recovery.
About 1.2 million businesses participate in the BTOS, divided into six panels with roughly 200,000 businesses each. Each panel reports once every 12 weeks over a year-long period. According to the Census Bureau, respondents spend an average of nine minutes completing the survey.
Data from BTOS are released biweekly and are broken down by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the country. New questions about artificial intelligence were introduced on November 17; results from these will be published in 2026.
The Census Bureau states that “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.”
There is no news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
