The U.S. Census Bureau released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) on April 9, providing updated information about business conditions and projections across the United States.
The BTOS is designed to offer continuous, timely insights into key economic measures such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories for all employer businesses in the country except farms. This ongoing survey helps officials at local, state, and federal levels make informed decisions by tracking changes in business activity every two weeks.
According to the Census Bureau’s announcement, BTOS collects biweekly data from a sample of approximately 1.2 million businesses. These are divided into six panels of about 200,000 cases each; selected businesses are asked to respond every twelve weeks over a year-long period. The average time required for respondents to complete the survey is estimated at nine minutes.
The collected data will be made available biweekly by sector, state, and for the twenty-five most populous metropolitan statistical areas. In addition to standard questions on business operations, new questions regarding artificial intelligence were added on November 17, 2025; results from these questions are expected to be released in spring 2026.
BTOS aims to provide valuable real-time information that not only supports government policymaking but also assists businesses with their own economic planning.
