The U.S. Census Bureau released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) on April 9, 2026. The BTOS measures business conditions and projections on an ongoing basis, providing information that complements other economic surveys by tracking key items such as revenues, employees, hours, and inventories.
The survey is designed to offer continuous and timely data for all employer businesses in the United States economy except farms. By releasing biweekly updates with geographic and subsector detail, BTOS helps capture the effects of events like natural disasters or economic crises while supporting efforts to monitor recovery.
Approximately 1.2 million businesses are included in the BTOS sample. These are divided into six panels of about 200,000 cases each; each panel is asked to report every twelve weeks over a year. According to the Census Bureau, it takes respondents around nine minutes on average to complete the survey.
Data from BTOS will be available every two weeks by sector, state, and across the twenty-five most populous metropolitan statistical areas. The Census Bureau added new questions about artificial intelligence on November 17, 2025; results from these questions are expected to be released in spring of 2026.
Survey findings provide local, state, and federal officials with real-time data essential for policymaking and decision-making. Businesses can also use this information when making economic decisions.
