The U.S. Census Bureau has published new data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) as of January 15, 2026. The BTOS is designed to measure ongoing business conditions and future projections, including for multiunit and multilocation businesses.
According to the Census Bureau, “BTOS data are representative of all employer businesses in the U.S. economy, excluding 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.”
The survey draws from a sample of about 1.2 million businesses that are divided into six panels of roughly 200,000 cases each. Each panel is asked to participate every 12 weeks over one year. The average time to complete the survey is estimated at nine minutes per respondent.
Data releases will occur biweekly, broken down by sector, state, and for the 25 largest metropolitan statistical areas. As part of its updates, questions on artificial intelligence were added in November 2025; these results will be available later in 2026.
Survey findings support local, state, and federal officials with real-time information useful for policymaking decisions. Businesses also use this information to inform their own economic planning.
There is no formal news release accompanying this announcement; it was distributed as a tip sheet only.
