The U.S. Census Bureau released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey on March 26, 2026. The survey measures business conditions and projections on an ongoing basis, collecting information that complements other economic surveys such as revenues, employees, hours, and inventories.
The survey is designed to represent all employer businesses in the United States economy except farms. It provides timely data every two weeks with detailed geographic and subsector breakdowns. This approach allows the survey to capture the effects of events like natural disasters or economic crises while helping monitor recovery efforts.
Approximately 1.2 million businesses are included in the BTOS sample through biweekly data collection. These businesses are divided into six panels of about 200,000 cases each; each panel reports every twelve weeks for a year. According to the Census Bureau, it takes an average respondent about nine minutes to complete the survey after reviewing instructions and answers.
Data from BTOS will be released every two weeks by sector, state, and for the twenty-five most populous metropolitan statistical areas. New questions focusing on artificial intelligence were added on November 17, 2025; their results are expected to be released in spring 2026. The Census Bureau said that these results provide essential real-time data for local, state, and federal officials as well as aid businesses in making economic decisions.
No separate news release accompanied this announcement.
