The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which measures ongoing business conditions and projections across the United States. The survey covers all employer businesses except farms and aims to provide continuous, timely data on key economic indicators such as revenues, employees, hours, and inventories.
BTOS is designed to offer detailed information at both geographic and industry subsector levels. Data are collected every two weeks from a sample of about 1.2 million businesses, with selected companies divided into six panels of approximately 200,000 each. Each panel reports once every 12 weeks over the course of a year. According to the Census Bureau, respondents typically spend around nine minutes completing the survey.
The results are released biweekly and can be accessed by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country. In November 2025, new questions related to artificial intelligence were added to the survey; findings from these questions are expected in Spring 2026.
The BTOS provides essential real-time data that help local, state, and federal officials make informed policy decisions. The information also supports businesses in their own economic planning.
“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,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
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