The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) on July 31, 2025. The BTOS is designed to measure ongoing business conditions and projections, including for multiunit and multilocation businesses.
According to the Census Bureau, the survey provides information that complements other economic surveys by tracking revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories. The BTOS covers all employer businesses in the United States except for farms.
By collecting data every two weeks, the BTOS delivers timely information with detailed geographic and subsector breakdowns. This approach allows for monitoring the effects of events such as natural disasters or economic crises, as well as recovery efforts.
The survey sample includes about 1.2 million businesses, divided into six panels of roughly 200,000 each. Each panel is asked to participate every 12 weeks over a year. Completing the survey takes an estimated nine minutes per respondent.
Biweekly data releases will include information broken down by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country. These results are intended to provide local, state, and federal officials with real-time data to inform policymaking and decisions. Businesses can also use this information to guide their own economic choices.
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