The U.S. Census Bureau has published new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which monitors business conditions and projections across the country. The survey includes multiunit and multilocation businesses, providing a broad overview of employer businesses in the United States, excluding farms.
BTOS is designed to supply timely information about economic measures such as revenues, employment, hours worked, and inventories. Data are collected every two weeks, offering continuous updates with geographic and industry-specific detail. This approach helps track the effects of events like natural disasters or economic crises and supports monitoring of recovery efforts.
The BTOS sample includes around 1.2 million businesses, divided into six panels of approximately 200,000 cases each. Each panel is surveyed every 12 weeks over a year-long period. According to the Census Bureau, respondents spend about nine minutes on average completing the survey.
Survey results are released biweekly by sector, state, and for the 25 most populous metropolitan statistical areas. These findings provide local, state, and federal officials with up-to-date data to inform policy decisions. Businesses can also use this information to guide their own economic planning.
No formal news release accompanied this announcement; it was distributed as a tip sheet only.
