Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (BNED)
College bookstores and textbook wholesale, counted by function. Read November 8, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending May 2, 2026, filed July 9, 2026. Ranked 52 of the 240 Consumer Cyclical companies read so far, by the share within reach now.
Within reach now
31%
projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index
End of 2028
34%
Employees, annual report
3,782
Leading staffing pattern
Book Retailers and News Dealers
Share of the working time within reach, long-run pace, four times in five
Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- Now31%
- End of 202733%
- End of 202834%
- End of 203034%
What changes for its people by the end of 2028, by its industries' figures
- Stays with people 65%
- Becomes checking a model's work 22%
- Handed over with lighter checks 12%
Barnes & Noble Education states 2,196 full-time and about 1,417 part-time domestic employees and 169 international, 3,782 in all; its campus bookstores lead at book retailers, with the wholesale business at book wholesaling and the 346 in corporate support at management of companies.
The figures on this page come from the company's own annual report and from BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. They are estimates with a stated method. Nothing here says what the company will do: within reach is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
What follows from the reading
Share of working time within reach of AI, on the long-run pace at four in five: 31% now, 33% at the end of 2027, 34% at the end of 2028, 34% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 34% desk work, 26% people work and 40% body work. These are the site's industry estimates weighted by the shares below: estimates with a stated method and range, not a forecast of what the company will do. By the same patterns, at the end of 2028 about 65% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 22% becomes checking a model's work and 12% could be handed over with lighter checks, from the industries' own figures, not the company's roles.
Headcount
3,782 employees as of May 2, 2026 (sum of stated parts). 3,613 of 3,782 employees are domestic and 169 international.
The filing: “As of May 2, 2026, we had approximately 3,613 domestic employees, of which approximately 2,196 were full-time and the remaining were regularly scheduled part-time employees, and approximately 169 full-time international employees.”
The workforce as industry patterns
| Pattern | Share | Reason, from the filing |
|---|---|---|
| Book Retailers and News Dealers | 79% | Stated counts (a): 1,397 of the 2,196 full-time employees work in the retail stores, with the regularly scheduled part-time employees, many of them students, who staff the campus bookstores, college bookstores, NAICS 459210 in the 4592 group, the SIC 5940 business. |
| Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods (4241, 4247, and 4249 only) | 12% | Stated count (a): 453 full-time employees work in the wholesale business, the MBS textbook wholesale operation, book wholesaling, NAICS 4249 in the 4240A3 group. |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises | 9% | Stated count (a): 346 full-time employees work in corporate support functions, a stated corporate count that rule 6 sends to management of companies. |
What the filing says about the workforce: 2,196 full-time and about 1,417 regularly scheduled part-time domestic employees and 169 full-time international employees; about 3,459 temporary and seasonal domestic employees in peak periods are not counted; of the full-time, 1,397 in retail stores, 453 in wholesale and 346 in corporate support; no unions; fiscal year ends early May.
What the filing says about AI
3 sentences in the filing name AI. The filing names AI in three sentences: among the risks of open educational resources and digital platforms including AI technologies as alternatives to course materials, and among the laws that may regulate its business.
- “D/B/A "Lids" ("Lids", and together with Fanatics, referred to herein as the "F/L Relationship"), and the potential for adverse operational and financial changes to these strategic service provider relationships, may adversely impact our business; non-renewal of managed bookstore, physical and/or online store contracts and higher-than-anticipated involuntary store closings; decisions by K-12 sch...”
- “Increased Use of Open Educational Resources ("OER"), Online and Digital Platforms as Companions or Alternatives to Traditional Course Materials, Including Artificial Intelligence ("AI") Technologies.”
- “These laws and regulations may cover taxation, data privacy, information security, our access to student financial aid, pricing and availability of educational materials, competition and/or antitrust, content, copyrights, distribution, college distribution, mobile communications, electronic contracts and other communications, consumer protection, artificial intelligence, the provision of online...”
Its annual reports, year by year
Sentences naming AI in each annual report, counted by one rule, beside the median report in the Index that year. Each count links its filing. Every company, by year and sector
- Fiscal 20211median 0
- Fiscal 20221median 0
- Fiscal 20233median 1
- Fiscal 20243median 4
- Fiscal 20253median 10
Headcount by filing year
As reported in each year's annual report, with the filing. A year marked not read had no figure the reading could take from the report's text.
| Period | Employees | Filed | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-02 | 3,613 | 2026-07-09 | 10-K |
| 2025-05-03 | 3,559 | 2025-12-23 | 10-K |
| 2024-04-27 | 3,750 | 2024-07-01 | 10-K |
| 2023-04-29 | 4,250 | 2023-07-31 | 10-K |
| 2022-04-30 | 4,600 | 2022-06-29 | 10-K |
| 2021-05-01 | 4,095 | 2021-06-30 | 10-K |
| 2020-05-02 | 3,400 | 2020-07-14 | 10-K |
| 2019-04-27 | 3,700 | 2019-06-25 | 10-K |
| 2018-04-28 | 6,600 | 2018-06-20 | 10-K |
| 2017-04-29 | 5,800 | 2017-07-12 | 10-K |
| 2016-04-30 | 5,500 | 2016-06-29 | 10-K |
Limits of this reading
- The headcount is the sum of the stated domestic and international parts, 3,782; the 3,459 temporary and seasonal peak employees are outside it as the filing counts them (rule 2).
- The part-time employees are not split by workplace; they are read with the stores, where the filing says many of them work as students.
Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0001634117-26-000070, the filing. Read by Claude Fable 5.1 under rubric version 1, by the method. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
The report on Barnes & Noble Education, Inc., $29
This page as a document to keep, with what it does not show: the share within reach at every date on three paces and two reliabilities, a typical workforce of this shape at the stated headcount role by role and task by task (the industries' staffing, never the company's roster), where to start, what changes for the people and what they would learn, every sentence in the filing that names AI, the headcount by year, the companies read with the same leading pattern, the method and a citation line. To print or save as a PDF, open again in your browser for a year.
See the report, $29See the sample first: Walmart's report is free
Questions about this company
- How much of Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.'s working time is within reach of AI?
- An estimated 31% now and 34% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five, from the workforce Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.'s own annual report describes and BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. It is an estimate with a stated method. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings, and it says nothing about what the company will do.
- How many people does Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. employ?
- 3,782 as of May 2, 2026, as its annual report for the period ending May 2, 2026 states as the sum of the parts it gives. About 96% in the U.S.
- What kinds of work make up Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.'s workforce?
- Read from its annual report as a blend of 3 industry staffing patterns, the largest Book Retailers and News Dealers; by those patterns the work is about 34% desk work, 26% people work and 40% body work. Each share has a one-sentence reason on this page that can be checked against the filing.
- What does Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.'s annual report say about AI?
- 3 sentences in the filing name AI. Its annual reports for fiscal 2021 to 2025 name it in 1, 1, 3, 3 and 3 sentences, year by year. They are counted and quoted on this page, never judged: a count says how much a filing talks about AI, not what the company does with it.
- How is this estimated?
- Claude Fable 5.1 read the annual report under the Index's written rubric (version 1) on November 8, 2026: the stated headcount, the share in the U.S. when stated, and the workforce as a blend of industry staffing patterns. The estimates are the site's industry estimates weighted by those shares, from O*NET tasks with estimated lengths and METR's measurements of how long a task AI models can finish. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
Embed these figures on your site
A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.