The U.S. Census Bureau has published new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which tracks business conditions and forecasts on a regular basis. The survey now includes information from businesses with multiple locations, offering more comprehensive coverage of employer businesses across the United States, excluding farms.
According to the Census Bureau, “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 BTOS collects responses from about 1.2 million businesses through biweekly surveys. These businesses are divided into six panels, each consisting of roughly 200,000 cases that are asked to report every 12 weeks throughout the year. The agency notes that it takes an average respondent around nine minutes to complete the survey.
Survey results are released every two weeks and cover sector-level data as well as information by state and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. The Census Bureau introduced new questions regarding artificial intelligence on November 17; these results will be available in 2026.
Officials at local, state, and federal levels use this real-time data to support policy development and decision-making processes. Businesses also rely on these insights when making economic decisions.
There is no separate news release linked to this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
