The Bi-Weekly Snapshot: Measuring Stress and Stability in NJ’s Economy

As you might have noticed, we’ve been posting different reports that seek to measure NJ’s economy in different ways because one report doesn’t give the full picture.

So far, we’ve looked at unemployment rates, WARN notices, revenue, payroll movement, businesses opening v. closing; today we’re going to focus on a report from the US Census that gets updated every two weeks: the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey, or BTOS, which released a fresh update today.

The data comes from a survey that asks businesses about revenue, demand, prices, employment, interest rates, whether they use AI and a host of other relevant items that seek to evaluate how businesses see and operate in NJ’s business environment.

The most recent data reflects responses from May 4 through May 17, 2026 and it shows some tension. For example, according to this data set, 30.7% of NJ businesses reported that operating revenues, sales or receipts went down over the prior two weeks and 15.5% reported an increase – a slightly tighter revenue snapshot that what we’re seeing nationally.

One notable indicator connects to expected demand of the next six months; with NJ Businesses reporting a more pessimistic view than the national.

While you should take these numbers in with some caution, especially at the state level and because it involves survey data, BTOS is still a useful on the ground look at what businesses are reporting and can give residents a fuller picture of NJ’s business conditions over time.

You can access the State, National and other reports here.