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 across the United States. The BTOS includes information for businesses with multiple locations, offering a detailed view of key economic indicators such as revenues, employment, hours worked, and inventories.
According to the Census Bureau, the BTOS sample consists of about 1.2 million businesses that participate in biweekly data collection. These businesses are divided into six panels, each containing roughly 200,000 cases. Each panel is surveyed every 12 weeks over the course of a year. Completing the survey typically takes respondents around nine minutes.
The survey results represent all employer businesses in the country except farms. Data are released every two weeks and are available by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. This approach allows for continuous monitoring of economic activity and can capture the effects of significant events like natural disasters or economic downturns.
The BTOS also helps officials at various levels of government make informed decisions based on real-time data and assists businesses in their planning processes. New questions focusing on artificial intelligence were added to the survey on November 17; findings from these questions will be published in 2026.
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