The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which tracks business conditions and projections across the United States. The survey covers all employer businesses except farms, providing regular updates on economic indicators such as revenues, employment, hours worked, and inventories.
The BTOS collects information from about 1.2 million businesses every two weeks. These businesses are divided into six panels of roughly 200,000 each, with each panel asked to respond once every 12 weeks over a year. According to the Census Bureau, it takes an average of nine minutes for respondents to complete the survey.
Data from BTOS is published biweekly and is available by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the country. The survey also recently added questions related to artificial intelligence on November 17; results from these questions will be released in 2026.
The continuous nature of BTOS allows it to provide timely data that helps capture the effects of events like natural disasters or economic downturns and supports monitoring recovery efforts. The information collected assists local, state, and federal officials in policymaking as well as helping businesses make informed decisions.
“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 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.”
There was no news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
