The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which tracks business conditions and projections on an ongoing basis. The BTOS collects information similar to other economic surveys, including revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories.
The survey covers all employer businesses in the United States except for farms. It provides regular updates every two weeks on key economic measures, offering detailed geographic and subsector information. This allows the BTOS to monitor how events such as natural disasters or economic crises affect businesses and supports tracking recovery efforts.
Approximately 1.2 million businesses are included in the BTOS sample. These are divided into six panels of about 200,000 each, with each panel reporting 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 the BTOS will be published biweekly and broken down by sector, state, and the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. In November 2025, new questions regarding artificial intelligence were added to the survey; results from these questions are expected to be released in Spring 2026. The survey aims to provide local, state, and federal officials with real-time data that can support policymaking and decision-making processes. Businesses can also use this information when making economic decisions.
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