The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which measures ongoing business conditions and projections in the United States. The survey includes information for businesses with multiple locations and continues to collect data that complements other economic surveys, such as those tracking revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories.
The BTOS covers all employer businesses in the country except farms. It provides continuous and timely data every two weeks on key economic indicators, offering detailed insights by geography and industry subsector. This regular reporting helps capture the effects of events like natural disasters or economic crises and supports efforts to monitor recovery.
Approximately 1.2 million businesses are included in the BTOS sample, with biweekly data collection. These businesses are divided into six panels of about 200,000 each; each panel is surveyed every 12 weeks over a year. According to the Census Bureau, completing the survey takes an average respondent around nine minutes.
Data from BTOS will be released every two weeks and made available by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. In November 2025, new questions regarding artificial intelligence were added to the survey; results from these questions will be published in 2026. The findings provide local, state, and federal officials with real-time information for policymaking and decision-making while also supporting business planning.
There is no news release associated with this announcement; it was distributed as a tip sheet only.
