The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which collects information on business conditions and projections. The survey includes multiunit and multilocation businesses, expanding its coverage of the U.S. economy except for farms.
BTOS is designed to complement other economic surveys by collecting ongoing data on key indicators such as revenues, employment, hours worked, and inventories. Data collection occurs every two weeks and covers about 1.2 million businesses nationwide. The selected businesses are divided into six panels of approximately 200,000 each; each panel reports once every 12 weeks over a year.
According to the Census Bureau, it takes respondents an average of nine minutes to complete the survey, including time spent reviewing instructions and providing answers.
Survey results will be released biweekly and organized by sector, state, and for the 25 most populous metropolitan statistical areas in the country. These results provide timely information for local, state, and federal officials to inform policy decisions and help businesses make economic choices.
The BTOS offers continuous data with detailed geographic breakdowns that can capture impacts from events like natural disasters or economic crises while supporting efforts to monitor recovery across different regions.
No formal news release was issued alongside this announcement; instead, a tip sheet was provided.
