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. The survey now includes information from businesses with multiple locations.
The BTOS gathers data every two weeks on several economic indicators, such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories. It covers all employer businesses in the country except for farms. According to the Census Bureau, this continuous collection allows for more timely insight into the economy’s status at both geographic and industry-specific levels. This approach helps track how events like natural disasters or economic downturns affect businesses and supports monitoring of recovery efforts.
About 1.2 million businesses are included in the BTOS sample. These are divided into six panels of roughly 200,000 cases each, with participants asked to respond every 12 weeks over a year. The agency estimates that it takes about nine minutes on average to complete the survey.
Survey results are published every two weeks and broken down by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan areas in terms of population. New questions related to artificial intelligence were added on November 17, 2025; their results will be released later in 2026.
The Census Bureau states that these findings offer important real-time data for local, state, and federal officials involved in policymaking and decision-making processes. Businesses can also use this information when making their own economic decisions.
There is no news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
