The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which provides ongoing measurements of business conditions and projections. The survey includes data for businesses with multiple locations and covers a range of economic indicators such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories.
The BTOS is designed to represent all employer businesses in the United States except for farms. It delivers timely updates on key economic measures every two weeks, offering detailed information by geography and industry subsector. This allows the survey to capture the effects of events like natural disasters or economic crises and helps track recovery efforts.
Approximately 1.2 million businesses are included in the BTOS sample, with biweekly data collection cycles. Businesses are divided into six panels of about 200,000 each, reporting every 12 weeks over a year. According to the Census Bureau, it takes an average respondent about nine minutes to complete the survey.
Data from BTOS will be published every two weeks and made available by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. The results provide real-time information that supports decision-making at local, state, and federal levels as well as assists businesses in their own planning.
There is no news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
