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January 2025 – The U.S. Census Bureau releases a new data product for the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a survey that continuously measures business conditions and forecasts. BTOS contains data for multi-location/multi-location businesses. BTOS will continue to collect data that complements key items found in other economic surveys, such as revenue, employees, hours, and inventory. One cycle of additional details on the use of artificial intelligence and the types used was released on March 28, 2024.
From November 4, 2024, Work from Home (WFH) questions will be added to the BTOS for Cycle 2 (November 4, 2024 to January 26, 2025). While WFH became essential during the pandemic and continues to be a critical function in many workplaces, existing measures reveal significant data gaps in understanding its scope, especially from a business perspective. It has become. To address this, 11 WFH questions were developed for BTOS to address the rate and frequency of WFH, challenges, management policies, and business impact. Work-from-home data is expected to be released in the spring.
BTOS data represent all employer businesses in the U.S. economy, excluding farms. BTOS provides insight into the state of the economy by providing continuous and timely data on key economic indicators every two weeks. By providing continuous data with geographic and sub-sector details, BTOS helps understand the impact of events such as natural disasters and economic crises, and helps monitor recovery efforts.
The BTOS sample consists of approximately 1.2 million companies, and data is collected biweekly. The selected companies are divided into six panels (approximately 200,000 per panel) and asked to report every 12 weeks for one year. The Census Bureau estimates that the average respondent will take approximately nine minutes to complete the survey, including time to review instructions and answers.
Data is released biweekly and is available by department, state, and 25 most populous metropolitan statistical areas. The findings will provide local, state, and federal officials with critical real-time data to inform policy development and decision-making. Additionally, this information helps businesses make economic decisions.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
