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, the BTOS provides continuous and timely data every two weeks that reflect key economic indicators. This regular reporting includes geographic and subsector details, enabling the survey to capture the effects of events such as natural disasters or economic crises. These insights are intended to help monitor recovery efforts in affected areas.
The survey sample consists of about 1.2 million businesses nationwide. These are divided into six panels of roughly 200,000 businesses each, with each panel asked to respond every 12 weeks over a year-long period. The Census Bureau estimates that it takes respondents an average of nine minutes to complete the survey.
Data from BTOS will be published biweekly and broken down by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country. In November 2025, new questions related to artificial intelligence were added; results from these questions are expected in Spring 2026. The findings from BTOS provide local, state, and federal officials with real-time data for policymaking while also supporting businesses in their own decision-making processes.
There is no separate news release for this announcement; only a tip sheet has been provided.
