The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a program designed to track business conditions and projections in the United States on an ongoing basis. The survey includes data for businesses with multiple units or locations and covers key economic indicators such as revenues, employees, hours, and inventories.
The BTOS gathers information from approximately 1.2 million employer businesses across the country, excluding farms. Data collection is conducted every two weeks, with selected companies divided into six panels of about 200,000 each. Each panel is asked to respond once every 12 weeks over a year. According to the Census Bureau, it takes respondents about nine minutes on average to complete the survey.
By providing continuous data at both geographic and subsector levels, BTOS aims to offer timely insight into economic conditions nationwide. This includes monitoring how events like natural disasters or economic crises affect businesses and tracking subsequent recovery efforts.
Data from the BTOS will be released biweekly and broken down by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. Starting in 2026, new questions added in November 2025 will provide information on artificial intelligence usage among businesses.
“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,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
There is no news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
