The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a survey designed to measure business conditions and projections across the country. The BTOS now includes information for businesses with multiple locations, offering broader coverage of employer businesses in the United States, except for farms.
According to the Census Bureau, BTOS collects continuous and timely data on key economic measures such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories every two weeks. This approach allows the survey to capture the effects of events like natural disasters or economic crises and helps monitor recovery efforts.
The sample for BTOS consists of about 1.2 million businesses. These are divided into six panels of roughly 200,000 cases each; selected businesses are asked to report every 12 weeks over a year. The agency estimates that completing the survey takes an average respondent about nine minutes.
Data from BTOS will be published biweekly and will be available by sector, state, and for the 25 most populous metropolitan statistical areas. The Census Bureau says these results provide essential real-time data for local, state, and federal officials to support policymaking decisions. Additionally, businesses can use this information when making their own economic decisions.
“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,” according to a statement from the U.S. Census Bureau.
“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,” said representatives from the bureau.
There is no separate news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
