The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which measures business conditions and projections on a regular basis. The BTOS now includes data from businesses with multiple units or locations.
The survey gathers information that complements other economic surveys, including data on revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories. It is designed to provide timely and ongoing insight into the state of the economy by collecting data every two weeks from a sample representing all employer businesses in the United States, except for farms.
BTOS collects responses from about 1.2 million businesses through biweekly surveys. The selected businesses are divided into six panels of approximately 200,000 cases each. Each panel is asked to respond every 12 weeks over a year. According to the Census Bureau, it takes an average respondent about nine minutes to complete the survey.
Data from BTOS will be released every two weeks and made available by sector, state, and for the 25 most populous metropolitan statistical areas. In November, new questions on artificial intelligence were added to the survey; results from these questions will be published in 2026.
The Census Bureau stated: “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.”
Survey findings help officials at various government levels make informed decisions based on real-time economic conditions. The information also supports businesses as they plan their own economic strategies.
There was no accompanying news release with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
