The U.S. Census Bureau released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) on April 9, a survey that measures business conditions and projections on an ongoing basis.
The BTOS is designed to provide continuous, timely information about key economic measures such as revenues, employees, hours, and inventories. This data is intended to help local, state, and federal officials make informed decisions during events like natural disasters or economic crises by monitoring recovery efforts with up-to-date statistics.
According to the Census Bureau, BTOS collects biweekly responses from a sample of approximately 1.2 million employer businesses across the United States economy, excluding farms. The selected businesses are divided into six panels of about 200,000 cases each; each panel reports every twelve weeks for one year. The agency estimates that it takes respondents about nine minutes to complete the survey.
Data collected by BTOS will be available every two weeks at sector level as well as by state and for the twenty-five most populous metropolitan statistical areas. New questions focusing on artificial intelligence were added in November 2025; results from these questions are expected to be released in spring 2026.
Survey results not only assist government officials but also help businesses make important economic decisions based on real-time information.
