Noodles & Company (NDLS)

Fast casual restaurants, 92% hourly. Read October 19, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending December 30, 2025, filed March 26, 2026. Ranked 180 of the 184 Consumer Cyclical companies read so far, by the share within reach now.

Noodles & Company’s approximately 6,500 employees, 6,000 of them hourly, work in its restaurants, read as one restaurant pattern with the support functions inside.

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: 11% now, 13% at the end of 2027, 13% at the end of 2028, 13% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 13% desk work, 22% people work and 65% 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 87% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 9% becomes checking a model's work and 4% could be handed over with lighter checks, from the industries' own figures, not the company's roles.

Headcount

6,500 employees as of December 30, 2025 (stated). The filing’s human capital section counts no employees by country.

The filing: “As of December 30, 2025, we had approximately 6,500 employees, including approximately 500 salaried employees and approximately 6,000 hourly employees.”

The workforce as industry patterns

What the filing says about the workforce: Approximately 6,500 employees, about 500 salaried and 6,000 hourly; none unionized.

Companies read with the same leading pattern

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

• Starbucks (SBUX, 381,000 employees)11% now, 14% by 2028
• Yum China Holdings, Inc. (YUMC, 290,000 employees)11% now, 14% by 2028
• Darden (DRI, 209,931 employees)11% now, 13% by 2028
• McDonald's Corporation (MCD, 150,000 employees)11% now, 13% by 2028
• Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG, 130,301 employees)11% now, 14% by 2028
• Texas Roadhouse, Inc. (TXRH, 101,000 employees)11% now, 14% by 2028
• Brinker International, Inc. (EAT, 85,003 employees)11% now, 14% by 2028
• Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (CBRL, 74,500 employees)11% now, 14% by 2028

What the filing says about AI

4 sentences in the filing name AI. The filing names AI four times, as risks: AI may change consumer expectations and intensify risks, and may require AI-specific systems.

• “The rapid evolution and increased adoption of artificial intelligence technologies may intensify our risks.”
• “New or improved technologies, including artificial intelligence, and risks or changes in consumer behavior facilitated by these technologies could negatively affect our business.”
• “For example, the rapid evolution and increased use of artificial intelligence and related technologies may affect our customers' expectations, requirements or tastes in ways we cannot adequately anticipate or adapt to, adversely affect our business financial condition and results of operations, and may require us to develop artificial intelligence-specific systems.”
• “Use of artificial intelligence in our systems may create further risks, such as unauthorized access to or the misappropriation of information including consumer, employee, financial and other types of information related to our business as well as disruptions to operations, which could materially adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.”

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 20231median 1
• Fiscal 20241median 4
• Fiscal 20254median 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.

Limits of this reading

• No count by location; the salaried count bundles restaurant managers with the support center and stays inside the pattern (rule 6).
• The revenue table’s lines are revenue types and were not used.

Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0001275158-26-000021, 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.