The U.S. Census Bureau has released updated data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a program that tracks business conditions and projections in the United States. The BTOS now includes information on multiunit or multilocation businesses.
The survey is designed to supplement other economic surveys by collecting data such as revenues, employee numbers, hours worked, and inventories. The BTOS covers all employer businesses in the U.S., with the exception of farms.
Data from the survey are collected every two weeks from about 1.2 million businesses. These businesses are divided into six panels of approximately 200,000 each, with each panel reporting every 12 weeks over a year-long period. According to the Census Bureau, it takes about nine minutes for respondents to complete the survey.
Results from BTOS are released biweekly and are available broken down by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the country. On November 17, new questions related to artificial intelligence were added to the survey; results from these questions will be made public in 2026.
According to the Census Bureau, “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.”
The continuous release of detailed geographic and industry-specific data allows policymakers and business leaders to monitor events like natural disasters or economic crises more closely as they occur and during recovery periods.
There is no separate news release accompanying this announcement; it was provided as a tip sheet only.
