Attachment A
Welcome to the Business Trends and Outlook Survey
The U.S. Census Bureau is requesting your assistance to produce important data on current economic conditions, as well as the impact on our nation’s economy when natural disasters or other emergencies occur.
Your response is especially important as it helps policy makers, government officials, and businesses like yours understand these effects. Please complete this quick survey; it will take approximately 10-17 minutes.
The data you provide will be aggregated to create a two-week snapshot of economic activity within the U.S. This survey is not intended to replace more comprehensive surveys that typically require the use of company records.
Estimates are acceptable and encouraged
The survey will take approximately 10-17 minutes
Please include all domestic operations of this consolidated business, including all locations, subsidiaries, and divisions.
For this survey, please provide data for: [Name 1] [Name 2]
Overall, how would you describe this business’s current performance? Please include all domestic operations of this consolidated business, including all locations, subsidiaries, and divisions.
Excellent
Above average
Average
Below average
Poor
Between MMM DD – MMM DD, how did this business’s operating revenues/sales/receipts change? Please compare this two-week period to the two weeks prior. Estimates are acceptable.
Increased
Decreased
No change
Between MMM DD – MMM DD, how did this business’s number of paid employees change?
Increased
Decreased
No change
Between MMM DD – MMM DD, did this business use Artificial Intelligence (AI)1 in producing goods or services? (Examples of AI: machine learning, natural language processing, virtual agents, voice recognition, etc.)
Yes
No
Do not know
In the last six months, did this business experience any monetary losses due to an extreme weather event (for example, hurricane, flood, drought, heat wave, etc.)?
Include incurred costs and losses of sales or assets.
Yes
No (skip to 7)
What type of extreme weather event caused the monetary losses? Select all that apply.
Wildfire
Earthquake
Hurricane
Tornado
Flood
Drought
High winds
Severe storm/hail
Snow/blizzard
Ice
Extreme temperature (heat or cold)
Other (please describe ___________)
Six months from now, how do you think you will describe this business’s performance?
Excellent
Above average
Average
Below average
Poor
Six months from now, how do you think this business’s number of paid employees will have changed?
Increased
Decreased
No change
During the next six months, do you think this business will be using Artificial Intelligence (AI)2 in producing goods or services? (Examples of AI: machine learning, natural language processing, virtual agents, voice recognition, etc.)
Yes
No
Do not know
These next questions ask about Work from Home from the business’s perspective.
10. Does this business currently have any full-time employees who work from home for at least 6 hours in a day?
Yes
No (skip to 12)
11. Approximately what percentage of this business’s full-time employees currently work from home for at least 6 hours in a day?
____% do so rarely
____% do so ~1 day per week
____% do so ~2 days per week
____% do so ~3 days per week
____% do so ~4 days per week
____% do so ~5 or more days per week
____
100%
Do not know/Not applicable
Alt-11a
Does this business currently have full-time employees who work from home for at least 6 hours in a day for any of the following options? Select all that apply.
Rarely
~1 day per week
~2 days per week
~3 days per week
~4 days per week
~5 or more days per week
Do not know/Not applicable
Five years ago (in 2019), approximately what percentage of this business’s full-time employees worked from home for at least6 hours in a day?
____% did so never
____% did so rarely
____% did so ~1 day per week
____% did so ~2 days per week
____% did so ~3 days per week
____% did so ~4 days per week
____% did so ~5 or more days per week
____
100%
Do not know/Not applicable
Looking forward to five years from now (in 2029), approximately what percentage of this business’s full-time employees do you think will work from home for at least 6 hours in a day?
____% will do so never
____% will do so rarely
____% will do so ~1 day per week
____% will do so ~2 days per week
____% will do so ~3 days per week
____% will do so ~4 days per week
____% will do so ~5 or more days per week
____
100%
Do not know/Not applicable
Does this business currently have any full-time employees who work all their paid hours from home (fully remote)?
Yes
No (skip to 16)
Does this business pay its fully remote ull-time employees a local rate that varies by city, state, or region?
Yes
No
Alt-15a
Does this business pay its fully remote ull-time employees based partly on where they live?
Yes
No
What factors limit the ability of this business’s full-time employees to work from home? Select all that apply.
Parts or all of the job cannot be performed from home
Management of employees working from home too costly/complicated
Efficiency/productivity concerns
Challenges around mentoring/learning
Legal/regulatory/tax reasons
Security concerns (IT or other)
Other (please describe ___________)
No factors limit work from home
Does this business have an official work from home policy that includes minimum onsite requirements?
Yes
No (skip to 19)
How does this business ensure employees meet the minimum onsite requirements? Select all that apply.
Badge swipe or sign-in sheet
Attendance at in-person meetings
Manager checks
Other (please describe___________)
This business does not track onsite presence
Does this business monitor the productivity of full-time employees?
Yes
No (skip to 23)
How does this business monitor full-time employees working from home? Select all that apply.
Login/logoff times
Computer activity
Attendance/participation in online meetings
Specific measures of output (e.g., number of customers served or calls answered, sales, units produced, etc.)
Other (please describe ___________)
This business does not monitor full-time employees working from home.
How does this business monitor full-time employees working onsite? Select all that apply.
Arrival/departure times
Login/logoff times
Computer activity
Attendance/participation in online meetings
Attendance/participation at in person meetings
Specific measures of output (e.g., number of customers served or calls answered, sales, units produced, etc.)
Other (please describe ___________)
This business does not monitor full-time employees working onsite.
Has this business observed differences in productivity for its full-time employees based on location?
Yes, work from home more productive
Yes, onsite more productive
No differences in productivity
Do not know/Not applicable
Alt-22a
Has this business observed differences in productivity for full-time employees based on whether they are working from home or onsite?
Yes, work from home more productive
Yes, onsite more productive
No differences in productivity
Do not know/Not applicable
Has the adoption of work from home by other businesses had an impact on this business? For example, this business has experienced lower sales due to a decrease in neighborhood foot traffic, or this business has experienced increased demand for products that facilitate working from home.
Yes, positive impact overall
Yes, negative impact overall
No impact
Would you like to provide any information about your responses to these questions or this business?
Remarks (500 characters)
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Contact information
Contact name:
Contact title:
For future Business Trends and Outlook Survey requests, please provide your preferred email address:
This collection has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The eight-digit OMB approval number is 0607-1022 and appears in the lower left corner of each reporting screen. Without this approval, we could not conduct this survey.
Authority and Confidentiality
Title 13, United States Code, Sections 131 and 182, authorizes the U.S. Census Bureau to conduct this collection and to request your voluntary assistance. The Census Bureau is required by Section 9 of the same law to keep your information confidential and use your responses only to produce statistics. The Census Bureau is not permitted to publicly release your responses in a way that could identify your business, organization, or institution. Per the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, your data are protected from cybersecurity risks through screening of the systems that transmit your data.
Burden Estimate Statement
We estimate the Business Trends and Outlook Survey will take an average of 10-17 minutes to complete. Factors such as company size, complexity and activity will affect your actual time to complete the survey. This estimate includes the time to review instructions, search existing data sources, gather and maintain the data needed, and complete and review the survey.
You may email comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: econ.btos@census.gov. Be sure to use “EID Survey Comments 0607-0725” as the subject.
1 Hyperlink: AI Definition: Computer systems and software that are able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as decision-making, visual perception, speech recognition, and language processing.
Types or applications of AI include machine learning, natural language processing, virtual agents, predictive analytics, machine vision, voice recognition, decision making systems, data analytics, image processing, etc.
2 (Added 10/23/23) AI Definition: Computer systems and software that are able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as decision-making, visual perception, speech recognition, and language processing.
Types or applications of AI include machine learning, natural language processing, virtual agents, predictive analytics, machine vision, voice recognition, decision making systems, data analytics, image processing, etc.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Kristin J Stettler (CENSUS/ESMD FED) |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2025-08-12 |