The U.S. Census Bureau has published new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), an ongoing survey that measures business conditions and projections. The BTOS includes information for multiunit and multilocation businesses and collects data similar to other economic surveys, including revenues, employees, hours, and inventories.
The BTOS is designed to represent all employer businesses in the United States except farms. It offers continuous and timely data on key economic indicators every two weeks, providing geographic and subsector details. This allows the survey to track the effects of events such as natural disasters or economic crises and helps monitor recovery efforts.
The sample for BTOS includes about 1.2 million businesses, with biweekly data collection. These are divided into six panels of approximately 200,000 each; every panel reports every 12 weeks over a year. The Census Bureau estimates it takes an average of nine minutes for respondents to complete the survey.
Data from BTOS will be released every two weeks and made available by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. Results from the survey provide local, state, and federal officials with real-time information useful for policymaking and decision-making. Businesses can also use this data when making economic decisions.
There is no news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
