The U.S. Census Bureau released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) on March 26, providing ongoing measurements of business conditions and projections across the United States.
The BTOS is designed to give a timely view of economic trends by collecting continuous data every two weeks from employer businesses, excluding farms. This information helps local, state, and federal officials make informed policy decisions and assists businesses in their economic planning.
According to the Census Bureau, the BTOS sample includes about 1.2 million businesses that are divided into six panels of approximately 200,000 cases each. Each panel is asked to report every twelve weeks over a year. The survey takes an average respondent about nine minutes to complete, which includes reviewing instructions and submitting answers.
BTOS releases its findings biweekly with results available by sector, state, and for the twenty-five most populous metropolitan statistical areas. In November 2025, new questions focusing on artificial intelligence were added to the survey; these results are expected in Spring 2026.
The survey aims to capture detailed impacts of events such as natural disasters or economic crises while monitoring recovery efforts through geographic and subsector breakdowns. No additional news release was issued alongside this announcement.
