Fastenal Company (FAST)

Industrial supplies distributor, 24,489, counted by role. Read October 19, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending December 31, 2025, filed February 5, 2026. Ranked 4 of the 75 Industrials companies read so far, by the share within reach now.

An industrial distributor whose filing counts its people by role and by country, so every pattern share is a stated count.

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: 24% now, 34% at the end of 2027, 38% at the end of 2028, 39% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 39% desk work, 18% people work and 43% 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 60% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 27% becomes checking a model's work and 11% could be handed over with lighter checks, from the industries' own figures, not the company's roles.

Headcount

24,489 employees as of December 31, 2025 (stated). 19,206 of 24,489 employees located in the U.S., 3,441 in Canada and Mexico and 1,842 overseas, as the filing states.

The filing: “At the end of 2025, we had 1,595 branch locations in 25 countries supported by 15 distribution centers in North America, with 12 in the United States (U.S.), two in Canada, and one in Mexico; two in Asia; and two in Europe, and we employed 24,489 people.”

The workforce as industry patterns

What the filing says about the workforce: 24,489 full- and part-time employees at the end of 2025 (23,702 a year earlier): 17,166 selling, 4,057 distribution and transportation, 1,046 manufacturing, 2,220 organizational support; 1,595 branches in 25 countries and 15 distribution centers; females 23.9% and minorities 25.2% of the U.S. workforce.

Companies read with the same leading pattern

Other companies whose largest staffing pattern is also Machinery, Equipment, and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers, largest first, each read from its own annual report. Within reach now and at the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.

• Genuine Parts Company (GPC, 65,000 employees)22% now, 32% by 2028

What the filing says about AI

5 sentences in the filing name AI. The filing names AI 5 times, as a tool in its inventory applications and a technology it must adopt to stay competitive, with regulatory risk.

• “Other applications are assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze customer usage data to recommend optimized parts and quantity for specific devices, which improves customer inventories while reducing the risk of stock-outs.”
• “Our ability to maintain and enhance our competitive position depends in part on our capacity to adopt and integrate emerging technologies, including AI and advanced analytics, into our operations, customer solutions, and supply chain management.”
• “The evolving regulatory landscape surrounding AI and data usage may also introduce compliance risks and additional costs.”
• “The Audit Committee of the Board is responsible for overseeing our risk exposure to information security, cybersecurity, AI security, and data protection, as well as the steps management has taken to monitor and control such exposures.”
• “However, any future potential risks from cybersecurity threats, including but not limited to exploitation of vulnerabilities, ransomware, denial of service, supply chain attacks, and the use of AI by threat actors engaged in these activities, or other similar threats may materially affect us, including our execution of business strategy, reputation, results of operations and/or financial condit...”

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 20210median 0
• Fiscal 20220median 0
• Fiscal 20230median 1
• Fiscal 20241median 4
• Fiscal 20255median 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.

Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0000815556-26-000009, 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.