The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which tracks business conditions and projections on an ongoing basis. The survey includes information from multiunit and multilocation businesses and is designed to complement other economic surveys by collecting data on revenues, employees, hours, and inventories.
BTOS covers all employer businesses in the United States except for farms. The survey provides continuous data every two weeks, offering insights into key economic measures with geographic and subsector detail. This allows BTOS to capture the effects of events such as natural disasters or economic crises and helps monitor recovery efforts.
The BTOS sample includes about 1.2 million businesses, with biweekly data collection. These businesses are divided into six panels of approximately 200,000 cases each, with each panel asked to report every 12 weeks over a year. According to the Census Bureau, it takes respondents about nine minutes on average to complete the survey.
Survey results are released every two weeks and are 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 will be published in 2026. The data provided by BTOS supports local, state, and federal officials in making policy decisions and also assists businesses in their economic planning.
There was no news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
