BTOS data is a valuable tool for understanding the state of the US economy. It represents all employer businesses in the country, excluding farms, and offers timely insights into key economic measures every two weeks. The detailed data includes information on geographical and subsector levels, making it useful for monitoring events such as natural disasters and economic crises, as well as tracking recovery efforts.
The sample size of BTOS is approximately 1.2 million businesses that are surveyed biweekly. These businesses are divided into six panels, each consisting of around 200,000 cases. Each business in these panels is asked to report every 12 weeks for a year. On average, it takes around nine minutes for respondents to complete the survey.
The data collected through BTOS will be released biweekly and made available by sector, state, and the 25 most populous metropolitan statistical areas. This information is crucial for policymakers at all levels as it provides real-time data for decision-making. Additionally, businesses can use this data to make informed economic decisions.
