The Workforce AI Index · Consumer Defensive
Tyson Foods (TSN)
Meat processing with stated site counts. Read October 1, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending 2025-09-27, filed 2025-11-10. Ranked 15 of the 16 Consumer Defensive companies read so far, by the share within reach now: the sector.
The filing states the total, the U.S. count, the count at non-corporate production sites and the union counts, so the processing pattern and the corporate share rest on stated figures.
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: 10% now, 14% at the end of 2027, 16% at the end of 2028, 16% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 16% desk work, 6% people work and 77% 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 82% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 14% 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
133,000 employees as of 2025-09-27 (stated). Approximately 116,000 team members in the United States and 17,000 in other countries, primarily Thailand and China.
The filing: “As of September 27, 2025, we employed approximately 133,000 team members globally.”
The workforce as industry patterns
| Pattern | Share | Reason, from the filing |
|---|---|---|
| Animal Slaughtering and Processing | 91% | By (a): the filing states that approximately 110,000 of the 116,000 U.S. team members work at non-corporate sites such as production facilities, warehouses, truck shops, hatcheries and feed mills, and that the 17,000 abroad are mostly in production countries, so the meat and poultry processing pattern takes the production part of those stated counts. |
| Warehousing and Storage | 5% | By (c) within a stated count: warehouses and truck shops are named among the non-corporate sites without a count of their own, so a small share is read into the warehousing pattern by description. |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises | 5% | By (a): the filing states 116,000 U.S. team members of whom 110,000 are at non-corporate sites, which leaves about 6,000 at corporate sites, a stated corporate count that rule 6 reads into the management-of-companies pattern. |
What the filing says about the workforce: About 133,000 team members; 110,000 at U.S. non-corporate sites; about 31,000 in the U.S. and 6,000 abroad under collective bargaining agreements; a 3.5 percentage point rise in domestic retention in fiscal 2025.
Companies read with the same leading pattern
Other companies whose largest staffing pattern is also Animal Slaughtering and Processing, largest first, each read from its own annual report. Within reach now and at the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (PPC, 63,000 employees)9% now, 13% by 2028
What the filing says about AI
2 sentences in the filing name AI. AI appears once, in the risk factors, as a new technology that may present new technological risks or vulnerabilities; the human capital section does not mention it.
- “Among the factors that may cause actual results and experiences to differ from anticipated results and expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are the following: (i) the effectiveness of financial excellence programs or operational optimization plans; (ii) access to, and inputs from, foreign markets together with foreign economic conditions, including currency fluctuations, im...”
- “In addition, new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, may present new technological risks or vulnerabilities.”
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-09-27 | 133,000 | 2025-11-10 | 10-K |
| 2023-09-30 | 139,000 | 2023-11-13 | 10-K |
| 2022-10-01 | 142,000 | 2022-11-14 | 10-K |
| 2021-10-02 | 137,000 | 2021-11-15 | 10-K |
| 2020-10-03 | 139,000 | 2020-11-16 | 10-K |
| 2019-09-28 | 141,000 | 2019-11-12 | 10-K |
| 2018-09-29 | 121,000 | 2018-11-13 | 10-K |
| 2017-09-30 | 122,000 | 2017-11-13 | 10-K |
| 2016-10-01 | 114,000 | 2016-11-21 | 10-K |
| 2015-10-03 | 113,000 | 2015-11-23 | 10-K |
| 2014-09-27 | 124,000 | 2014-11-17 | 10-K |
| 2013-09-28 | 115,000 | 2013-11-18 | 10-K |
| 2012-09-29 | 115,000 | 2012-11-19 | 10-K |
| 2011-10-01 | 115,000 | 2011-11-21 | 10-K |
| 2010-10-02 | 115,000 | 2010-11-22 | 10-K |
| 2009-10-03 | 117,000 | 2009-11-23 | 10-K |
| 2008-09-27 | 107,000 | 2008-11-20 | 10-K |
| 2007-09-29 | 104,000 | 2007-11-21 | 10-K |
| 2006-09-30 | 107,000 | 2006-12-13 | 10-K |
| 2005-10-01 | 114,000 | 2005-12-12 | 10-K |
| 2004-12-15 | 114,000 | 2004-12-15 | 10-K |
| 2003-09-27 | 120,000 | 2003-12-16 | 10-K |
| 2002-09-28 | 120,000 | 2002-11-27 | 10-K |
| 2001-09-29 | 124,000 | 2001-12-21 | 10-K |
| 2000-09-30 | 68,000 | 2000-12-08 | 10-K |
| 1999-10-02 | 69,000 | 1999-12-17 | 10-K405 |
| 1998-10-03 | 70,500 | 1998-12-16 | 10-K |
| 1997-09-27 | 59,400 | 1997-12-10 | 10-K405 |
| 1996-09-28 | 58,300 | 1996-12-16 | 10-K405 |
| 1995-09-30 | 64,000 | 1995-12-01 | 10-K405 |
| 1994-10-01 | 55,800 | 1994-12-14 | 10-K |
Limits of this reading
- The warehouses and truck shops inside the stated 110,000 at non-corporate sites have no count of their own, so that share is by description (c).
Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0000100493-25-000095, 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 Tyson Foods's working time is within reach of AI?
- An estimated 10% now and 16% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five, from the workforce Tyson Foods'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 Tyson Foods employ?
- 133,000 as of September 27, 2025, as its annual report for the period ending September 27, 2025 states. About 87% in the U.S.
- What kinds of work make up Tyson Foods's workforce?
- Read from its annual report as a blend of 3 industry staffing patterns, the largest Animal Slaughtering and Processing; by those patterns the work is about 16% desk work, 6% people work and 77% body work. Each share has a one-sentence reason on this page that can be checked against the filing.
- What does Tyson Foods's annual report say about AI?
- 2 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.