The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which provides ongoing information on business conditions and future expectations. The BTOS now includes data for businesses with multiple locations.
The survey is designed to cover all employer businesses in the United States, except farms. It collects information such as revenue, employment figures, hours worked, and inventories every two weeks. This frequent reporting aims to give a timely picture of the economy and allows for monitoring how events like natural disasters or economic crises affect businesses across different regions and industries.
About 1.2 million businesses are included in the BTOS sample. These are divided into six groups of around 200,000 each, with each group asked to complete the survey every 12 weeks over a year. The Census Bureau estimates that it takes an average of nine minutes to complete the survey.
Data from BTOS will be available biweekly and broken down by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the country. In November, new questions about artificial intelligence were added; responses to these will be published 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.”
There is no news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
