The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which tracks business conditions and projections on an ongoing basis. The survey includes information from multiunit and multilocation businesses, providing a broad view of employer businesses across the United States, except for farms.
The BTOS collects key economic indicators such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories. It is designed to offer continuous and timely data every two weeks with detailed geographic and industry breakdowns. This approach helps capture the effects of events like natural disasters or economic crises and supports monitoring recovery efforts.
Approximately 1.2 million businesses are included in the BTOS sample, with biweekly data collection. These businesses are divided into six panels of about 200,000 each; each panel reports every 12 weeks over a year. According to the Census Bureau, it takes an average respondent around nine minutes to complete the survey.
Data releases will occur every two weeks and will be available by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. In November 2025, new questions related to artificial intelligence were added to the survey; results from these questions are expected in 2026. The information gathered assists officials at all levels of government in policymaking and decision-making while also helping businesses make informed economic choices.
There is no news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
