The Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) provides insight into the state of the economy by providing timely data for key economic measures and business expectations about future conditions. By providing detailed geographic and subsector data, BTOS will provide local, state, and federal officials near real-time data for policy and decision-making including after natural disasters or during economic crises. The BTOS will also provide insight into recovery after these events.

The BTOS sample consists of approximately 1.2 million businesses split into 6 panels (approximately 200,000 cases per panel). Businesses in each panel will be asked to report once every 12 weeks for a year. Data collection will occur every two weeks. The Census Bureau estimates that it will take the average respondent approximately 6 minutes to complete the survey, including the time for reviewing the instructions and answers.

BTOS data are representative of all single location employer businesses in the U.S. economy, excluding farms. Data will be released every two weeks and be available by sector, state and the 25 most populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas.