The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) as of July 31, 2025. The BTOS is designed to measure business conditions and projections on an ongoing basis, including data for businesses with multiple locations.
According to the Census Bureau, the BTOS provides continuous and timely data for key economic measures every two weeks. The survey collects information such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories, complementing other economic surveys. This approach allows for detailed insights into the state of the economy at both geographic and subsector levels.
“BTOS data are representative of all employer businesses in the U.S. economy, excluding farms,” a statement from the Census Bureau reads. “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.”
The sample size for BTOS consists of about 1.2 million businesses, which are divided into six panels of roughly 200,000 each. Each panel is surveyed every 12 weeks over a year-long period. The agency estimates that it takes respondents around nine minutes to complete the survey.
Survey results will be released biweekly and made available by sector, state, and across the 25 most populous metropolitan statistical areas in the United States. These findings are intended to provide local, state, and federal officials with real-time data to inform policymaking and decision-making processes. Businesses can also use this information to support their own economic decisions.
There is no formal news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet has been provided.
