Business Trends and Outlook Survey: High Frequency Data From Census

This presentation introduces you to Census’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey, its history, structure, and output options. Every two weeks, a new dataset is released from a sample base of 1.2 million businesses, with 26 consistent questions. Respondents provide current sentiments and future perspectives that reflect operational changes and financial stress. Question topics include changes in revenue, hours worked, employment, input/output prices, demand, inventory, delivery time, work from home, use of AI, and general performance, as well as the impact of interest rates, loss due to weather, and if they started or closed a business. With such a huge sample base, these data can be parsed by state, Puerto Rico, top metropolitan areas, sector, subsector, and business size. If you work with people who need new data for their research or decision-makers interested in supply chain, sustainability, and economic development, this is the presentation is for you.