The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a survey designed to measure ongoing business conditions and projections. The BTOS now includes information for businesses with multiple locations.
According to the Census Bureau, “BTOS data are representative of all employer businesses in the U.S. economy, excluding farms. BTOS provides insight into the state of the economy by providing continuous, timely data for key economic measures every two weeks. By providing continuous data with geographic and subsector detail, BTOS captures the impact of events like natural disasters and economic crises and assists in monitoring recovery efforts.”
The survey sample is made up of about 1.2 million businesses, which are divided into six panels of roughly 200,000 each. Each panel is surveyed every 12 weeks over a year. On average, respondents spend about nine minutes completing the survey.
“Data will be released biweekly and available by sector, state and the 25 most populous metropolitan statistical areas. Survey results give local, state and federal officials essential, real-time data to aid in policymaking and decision-making. In addition, the information aids businesses in making economic decisions,” according to information from the Census Bureau.
The BTOS continues to collect complementary data found on other economic surveys such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories.
There is no news release associated with this announcement; it was issued as a tip sheet only.
