The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) as of January 15, 2026. The BTOS is an ongoing survey that tracks business conditions and projections, including information from businesses with multiple units or locations.
The survey provides data on key economic measures such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories. It excludes farm businesses but covers all other employer businesses across the United States economy. According to the Census Bureau, “BTOS provides insight into the state of the economy by providing continuous, timely data for key economic measures every two weeks.” The survey’s structure allows it to capture effects of significant events like natural disasters and economic crises and helps monitor recovery efforts.
Approximately 1.2 million businesses are included in the BTOS sample, with data collected biweekly. These businesses are divided into six panels of about 200,000 cases each; each panel is surveyed every 12 weeks over a year. On average, respondents spend around nine minutes completing the survey.
Results will be published every two weeks and broken down by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. In November 2025, new questions about artificial intelligence were added to the survey; results from these questions will be available in 2026.
The Census Bureau states that these results provide “local, state and federal officials essential, real-time data to aid in policymaking and decision-making.” Businesses can also use this information when making their own economic decisions.
There is no formal news release associated with this announcement; it was issued as a tip sheet only.
