The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), which tracks business conditions and projections across the country. The survey now includes information for businesses with multiple locations.
According to the Census Bureau, BTOS collects data that complements other economic surveys by covering areas such as revenues, employees, hours worked, and inventories. The survey is designed to represent all employer businesses in the United States except for farms.
“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 the U.S. Census Bureau.
The survey samples about 1.2 million businesses through biweekly data collection. These businesses are divided into six panels of roughly 200,000 each, with each panel asked to report every 12 weeks over a year. The Census Bureau estimates it takes an average respondent nine minutes to complete the survey.
Data from BTOS will be published every two weeks and will be available by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country. The results provide real-time information for officials at various levels of government as well as for business leaders making economic decisions.
There was no separate news release issued alongside this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
