The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which tracks business conditions and future projections across the United States. The BTOS gathers information from multiunit and multilocation businesses, providing data that complements other economic surveys by covering areas such as revenues, employment, hours worked, and inventories.
The survey represents all employer businesses in the country except for farms. It delivers timely updates on key economic indicators every two weeks, offering detailed insights at both geographic and industry subsector levels. This allows the BTOS to capture how events like natural disasters or economic crises affect businesses and supports efforts to monitor recovery.
Approximately 1.2 million businesses are included in the BTOS sample, with data collected biweekly. These businesses are divided into six panels of about 200,000 each; each panel reports once every 12 weeks over a year. According to the Census Bureau, completing the survey takes an average of nine minutes per respondent.
Results from the BTOS will be available by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. In November 2025, new questions about artificial intelligence were added to the survey; responses to these questions will be published in 2026. The Census Bureau states that “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.”
There is no formal news release accompanying this announcement; it is being distributed as a tip sheet only.
