The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which tracks business conditions and forecasts across the country. The survey includes information from multiunit and multilocation businesses, gathering details such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories.
The BTOS covers all employer businesses in the United States except for farms. Data are collected every two weeks from a sample of about 1.2 million businesses. These businesses are divided into six panels of roughly 200,000 each, with each panel reporting once every 12 weeks over the course of a year. According to the Census Bureau, it takes an average respondent around nine minutes to complete the survey.
Results from the BTOS are made available biweekly and can be broken down by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. The survey aims to provide ongoing data that help local, state, and federal officials make informed policy decisions. It also offers timely information for businesses to support their economic planning.
By collecting continuous data at detailed geographic and industry levels, BTOS is designed to capture how events such as natural disasters or economic crises affect businesses and recovery efforts.
“BTOS provides insight into the state of the economy by providing continuous, timely data for key economic measures every two weeks. By providing continuous data with geographic and subsector detail, BTOS captures the impact of events like natural disasters and economic crises and assists in monitoring recovery efforts.”
“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.”
No news release accompanied this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
