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 now includes data for businesses with multiple units or locations.
According to the Census Bureau, BTOS covers all employer businesses in the country except farms. It provides continuous, biweekly updates on key economic indicators such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories. The goal is to offer timely information that reflects current economic conditions at both geographic and industry-specific levels.
“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,” stated the U.S. Census Bureau.
The survey sample consists of about 1.2 million businesses, divided into six panels of approximately 200,000 each. Each panel reports once every 12 weeks over a year-long period. The Census Bureau estimates it takes an average respondent nine minutes to complete the survey.
Biweekly releases will include results broken down by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country. These results are intended to help officials at various government levels make informed policy decisions while also supporting businesses in their planning processes.
There is no news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
