The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which measures ongoing business conditions and projections across the United States. The survey includes information from multiunit and multilocation businesses, providing continuous data on key economic indicators such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories.
The BTOS is designed to represent all employer businesses in the country except for farms. Data are collected every two weeks from a sample of about 1.2 million businesses, divided into six panels of approximately 200,000 each. Each panel reports once every 12 weeks over the course of a year. According to the Census Bureau, it takes an average respondent around nine minutes to complete the survey.
Results from BTOS are released biweekly and are available by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. These results provide local, state, and federal officials with timely data that support policymaking and decision-making processes. Businesses can also use this information to guide 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.
No formal news release accompanied this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
