The Workforce AI Index · Consumer Cyclical
Home Depot (HD)
Home improvement stores with a stated U.S. share. Read October 1, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending 2026-02-01, filed 2026-03-18. Ranked 9 of the 39 Consumer Cyclical companies read so far, by the share within reach now: the sector.
A retailer whose filing states its total, its salaried and hourly counts and its workforce by country, but not the split between stores and distribution, which is read from the description.
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: 22% now, 27% at the end of 2027, 28% at the end of 2028, 28% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 28% desk work, 22% people work and 51% 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 71% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 15% becomes checking a model's work and 13% could be handed over with lighter checks, from the industries' own figures, not the company's roles.
Headcount
472,400 employees as of 2026-02-01 (stated). By the filing's table: United States 422,500 (89.4%), Canada 31,700 (6.7%), Mexico 17,800 (3.8%), other 400.
The filing: “At the end of fiscal 2025, we employed approximately 472,400 associates, of whom approximately 53,400 were salaried, with the remainder compensated on an hourly basis.”
The workforce as industry patterns
| Pattern | Share | Reason, from the filing |
|---|---|---|
| Building Material and Supplies Dealers | 92% | By (a) in part and (c) for the split: the filing states that about 419,000 of 472,400 associates are hourly, which fits a store workforce, and describes the business as its retail stores serving customers and professionals; no store or distribution headcount is stated, so the store share is read from the description. |
| Warehousing and Storage | 8% | By (c): the filing describes a supply chain network of distribution centers, including flatbed distribution centers for professional customers, without a headcount, so a small share is read into the warehousing pattern by description. |
What the filing says about the workforce: About 53,400 salaried and about 419,000 hourly associates; 89.4% in the United States. The filing says it opened 12 new stores in fiscal 2025 and plans about 80 new stores by fiscal 2027.
Companies read with the same leading pattern
Other companies whose largest staffing pattern is also Building Material and Supplies Dealers, largest first, each read from its own annual report. Within reach now and at the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Lowe's (LOW, 276,000 employees)22% now, 28% by 2028
- The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW, 64,249 employees)21% now, 31% by 2028
What the filing says about AI
13 sentences in the filing name AI. AI appears as a competitive factor ('AI tools facilitate competitive entry, price transparency, and comparison shopping'), in customer-facing tools such as Magic Apron for search, recommendations and chat, and in machine learning that routes online orders to the best fulfillment location; the human capital section does not mention it.
- “Form 10-K Summary . 80 SIGNATURES 81 Fiscal 2025 Form 10-K i Table of Contents COMMONLY USED OR DEFINED TERMS Term Definition AI Artificial intelligence ASU Accounting Standards Update BODFS Buy Online, Deliver From Store BOPIS Buy Online, Pickup In Store BORIS Buy Online, Return In Store BOSS Buy Online, Ship to Store Comparable sales As defined in the Results of Operations section of MD&A DIF...”
- “Online and other digital capabilities, as well as AI tools, facilitate competitive entry, price transparency, and comparison shopping, increasing the level of competition we face.”
- “In addition, we are leveraging AI tools to improve our search, recommendations, and chat features, and offering new AI-powered customer-facing tools such as Magic Apron TM , which supports customers and associates with online product and project inquiries, and our AI-powered Blueprint Takeoffs Tool and Material List Builder, which generate project-specific materials lists and quotes.”
- “Our 'ship from best location' initiative seeks to optimize delivery speed, reliability, cost, and capacity by leveraging machine learning algorithms to route orders to the optimal fulfillment node.”
- “Online and other digital capabilities, as well as AI tools, facilitate competitive entry, price transparency, and comparison shopping, increasing the level of competition we face.”
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-02-01 | 472,400 | 2026-03-18 | 10-K |
| 2025-02-02 | 470,100 | 2025-03-21 | 10-K |
| 2024-01-28 | 463,100 | 2024-03-13 | 10-K |
| 2023-01-29 | 471,600 | 2023-03-15 | 10-K |
| 2022-01-30 | 490,600 | 2022-03-23 | 10-K |
| 2021-01-31 | 504,800 | 2021-03-24 | 10-K |
| 2020-02-02 | 415,700 | 2020-03-25 | 10-K |
| 2019-02-03 | 413,000 | 2019-03-28 | 10-K |
| 2018-01-28 | 413,000 | 2018-03-22 | 10-K |
| 2017-01-29 | 406,000 | 2017-03-23 | 10-K |
| 2016-01-31 | 385,000 | 2016-03-24 | 10-K |
| 2015-02-01 | 371,000 | 2015-03-26 | 10-K |
| 2014-02-02 | 365,000 | 2014-03-27 | 10-K |
| 2013-02-03 | 340,000 | 2013-03-28 | 10-K |
| 2012-01-29 | 331,000 | 2012-03-22 | 10-K |
| 2011-01-30 | 321,000 | 2011-03-24 | 10-K |
| 2010-01-31 | 317,000 | 2010-03-25 | 10-K |
| 2009-02-01 | 322,000 | 2009-04-02 | 10-K |
| 2008-02-03 | 331,000 | 2008-04-03 | 10-K |
| 2007-01-28 | 364,000 | 2007-03-29 | 10-K |
| 2006-01-29 | 345,000 | 2006-03-29 | 10-K |
| 2005-01-30 | 325,000 | 2005-04-11 | 10-K |
| 2004-02-01 | 299,000 | 2004-04-12 | 10-K |
| 2003-02-02 | 280,000 | 2003-04-21 | 10-K |
| 2002-02-03 | 256,000 | 2002-04-19 | 10-K |
| 2001-01-28 | 227,000 | 2001-04-23 | 10-K |
Limits of this reading
- No store-versus-supply-chain headcount is stated; the split between the two patterns follows the business description (c).
Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0001628280-26-019436, 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.
Questions about this company
- How much of Home Depot's working time is within reach of AI?
- An estimated 22% now and 28% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five, from the workforce Home Depot'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 Home Depot employ?
- 472,400 as of February 1, 2026, as its annual report for the period ending February 1, 2026 states. About 89% in the U.S.
- What kinds of work make up Home Depot's workforce?
- Read from its annual report as a blend of 2 industry staffing patterns, the largest Building Material and Supplies Dealers; by those patterns the work is about 28% desk work, 22% people work and 51% body work. Each share has a one-sentence reason on this page that can be checked against the filing.
- What does Home Depot's annual report say about AI?
- 13 sentences in the filing name AI. 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 October 1, 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.