The U.S. Census Bureau has announced the release of new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a program designed to measure business conditions and future projections on an ongoing basis. The BTOS includes data for businesses with multiple units or locations and is intended to complement information collected by other economic surveys, covering topics such as revenue, employment, hours worked, and inventories.
The survey represents all employer businesses in the United States except farms. It aims to provide continuous and timely data for important economic indicators every two weeks. According to the Census Bureau, this frequent reporting with geographic and industry detail allows the survey to capture the effects of events like natural disasters or economic crises and helps monitor recovery efforts.
Approximately 1.2 million businesses are included in the BTOS sample. These businesses are divided into six panels of about 200,000 each; each panel is surveyed every 12 weeks over a one-year period. The Census Bureau estimates that it takes respondents around nine minutes to complete the survey, including time spent reviewing instructions.
BTOS data will be published every two weeks and will be available by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. Officials at local, state, and federal levels use these results for policymaking decisions. The information also assists businesses in making their own economic decisions.
There was no news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
