The U.S. Census Bureau has published new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a program that tracks business conditions and projections across the United States. The survey includes information for businesses with multiple locations and supplements data collected by other economic surveys, such as those on revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories.
The BTOS covers all employer businesses in the country except farms. Its purpose is to provide timely, ongoing insights into key economic indicators every two weeks. By offering continuous data at both geographic and industry subsector levels, the survey helps capture the effects of events like natural disasters or economic crises and supports monitoring of recovery efforts.
Approximately 1.2 million businesses are included in the BTOS sample. These are divided into six panels of about 200,000 each; every panel reports once every 12 weeks over a year. According to Census Bureau estimates, it takes respondents an average of nine minutes to complete the survey, which includes reviewing instructions and providing answers.
Survey results will be released biweekly and made available by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. The data serve as an important resource for local, state, and federal officials by supplying real-time information useful for policy decisions. Businesses can also use these insights to inform their own economic planning.
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