The U.S. Census Bureau released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) on April 9, providing updated information about business conditions and projections across the United States.
The BTOS offers timely insight into economic trends by collecting continuous data every two weeks from a wide range of employer businesses, excluding farms. This ongoing survey is designed to support local, state, and federal officials with real-time information that can inform policy decisions as well as assist businesses in making economic choices.
According to the Census Bureau, the BTOS sample includes approximately 1.2 million businesses divided into six panels of about 200,000 cases each. Each panel is surveyed every twelve weeks over a year-long period. The agency estimates that it takes an average respondent about nine minutes to complete the survey.
Data collected through BTOS covers key measures such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories. The results are made available biweekly by sector, state, and for the nation’s twenty-five most populous metropolitan statistical areas. In addition to standard questions, new items focused on artificial intelligence were introduced in November 2025 and are expected to be released in Spring 2026.
By providing detailed geographic and industry-level data at frequent intervals, BTOS enables tracking of how events like natural disasters or economic crises affect businesses and helps monitor recovery efforts over time.
