Business Trends and Outlook Survey (formerly the Small Business Pulse Survey, or SBPS)

The new Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) is the successor to and builds upon the Census Bureau's Small Business Pulse Survey (SBPS), which was created in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.

For users requesting access to the BTOS, they will get access to both the SBPS for years 2020-2022, and the BTOS for years 2022-2023 to continue with future expected years.

BTOS data will be representative of all single location employer businesses in the U.S. economy, excluding farms. Continuous data will allow for the measurement of economic trends during all phases of the business cycle as well as during economic and other emergencies. Biweekly data collection is scheduled to begin mid-July 2022.

The Census Bureau will contact approximately 200,000 businesses every two weeks and estimates that it will take the average respondent approximately 6 minutes to complete the survey, including the time for reviewing the instructions and answering. Selected businesses will receive the survey once every 12 weeks for a year.

It will shed light on the state of the economy prior to and during an event — including but not limited to natural disasters or economic crises. It will also assist in monitoring recovery from the event and in understanding large and small changes in economic trends throughout the business cycle.

The data will be valuable for elected and other government officials and policymakers, industry leaders, economic and social analysts, business entrepreneurs, news organizations and academics, among others.