To find the number of employees in a company's SEC filings, open its latest annual report on Form 10-K and read Item 1, Business, where the count sits in the passage on human capital. This post shows where that sentence is, what the rule behind it calls for, what the number counts, how to collect it through EDGAR by hand or by API, and how to set it beside other headcount figures.
How to find the number of employees in SEC filings and the 10-K
Search EDGAR for the company by name, ticker or CIK, limit the results to Form 10-K and open the most recent report. In Item 1, Business, find the passage on human capital or employees. Note the count, the date the sentence gives, whom it includes, and whether it covers subsidiaries.
EDGAR full-text search is the quickest route by hand. Its FAQ states that it searches the full text of all EDGAR filings submitted electronically since 2001, exhibits included, and that results can be limited to one form type and to a date range, from the last 30 days to all years since 2001 or dates you enter. Three kinds of query find the sentence.
- An exact phrase in quotation marks, such as "full-time employees", with the form type set to 10-K.
- Two terms joined by a capitalised NEAR(), which finds them within ten words of each other unless an integer sets another distance.
- A stem with a wildcard: employ followed by an asterisk.
Once you have the filing, write down four values beside the count: the company's Central Index Key, the accession number of the filing, the fiscal year end and the date the sentence names.
Item 1 of an SEC 10-K filing: where the number of employees sits
The number of employees sits in Item 1, Business, of the 10-K. Regulation S-K, which governs the non-financial parts of annual reports, sets out the description of business in Item 101, and Item 101 names human capital resources, including the number of persons employed, among the topics of that description.
The SEC's guide to reading a 10-K describes Item 1 as covering the company's business, main products and services, subsidiaries and markets. Item 101 asks for the business of the registrant and its subsidiaries, so check whether the count covers the group, and look in the same passage for a split by country, segment or contract.
What the SEC asks a company to state about its employee count in a 10-K annual report
Item 101(c)(2)(ii) of Regulation S-K calls for a description of the registrant's human capital resources, "including the number of persons employed by the registrant", to the extent material to an understanding of its business taken as a whole. A smaller reporting company may instead give its number of total employees and of full-time employees, to the extent material.
The regulation's own words carry the conditions, and both are in the text of Item 101. Paragraph (c)(2) applies its topics "with respect to, and to the extent material to an understanding of, the registrant's business taken as a whole", and where the information is material to one segment, it asks the registrant to identify that segment as well. Paragraph (h) lets a smaller reporting company satisfy the item by describing its business under that paragraph instead, and (h)(4) lists "Number of total employees and number of full-time employees" among the items it includes "to the extent material to an understanding of the smaller reporting company".
Apart from the issuers it excludes, such as investment companies and asset-backed issuers, the definition of a smaller reporting company turns on two tests in Item 10(f)(1): a public float of less than $250 million, or annual revenues of less than $100 million together with either no public float or a public float of less than $700 million.
The text of Item 101 leaves three things open. It names no date as of which the number is given. We found no definition of a person employed in it, so the treatment of part-time, temporary and contract staff is the company's own wording. And we found nothing in it on how exact the number must be.
The human capital wording comes from amendments the SEC announced on 26 August 2020. They took effect on 9 November 2020 and, as the SEC's compliance guide states, apply to filings made on or after that date. A run of counts that spans the date mixes reports written under two versions of the item.
Which SEC forms carry an employee count, and when each is due
Regulation S-K governs the non-financial statement portions of registration statements under the Securities Act and under section 12 of the Exchange Act, and of annual and other reports under sections 13 and 15(d). The annual report is where a count recurs, once a year, by a fixed deadline after the fiscal year end.
| Form | Who files it | Where the employee count sits | Due after the fiscal year end |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-K | A domestic registrant | Item 1, Business, under Item 101(c) of Regulation S-K | 60 days for a large accelerated filer, 75 days for an accelerated filer, 90 days for a non-accelerated filer |
| 10-K, smaller reporting company | A registrant that meets the float or revenue test | Item 1, where Item 101(h) allows total and full-time employees | By its filer status, as above |
| 20-F | A foreign private issuer | Item 6.D, Employees | Within four months |
The 10-K deadlines are in section 1330.1 of the SEC's Financial Reporting Manual; section 1340.6 adds that filer status does not change the 20-F deadline. The four months come from the SEC's overview for foreign issuers, and the employees heading under Item 6 appears in the contents of a filed Form 20-F. Before a company's first annual report, search its registration statement, whose non-financial content falls under the same regulation.
Reading the count through the SEC's data interfaces
The SEC's EDGAR APIs on data.sec.gov need no authentication or key. The submissions API returns one JSON file per filer with its filing history in a compact columnar array: at least a year of filings or the 1,000 most recent, whichever is more, with older filings in further files. Its typical processing delay, the SEC states, is under a second.
Fair access sets a ceiling of 10 requests a second and asks every request to declare a user agent naming your company and a contact address. The call below lists a company's 10-K filings with the filing date and accession number of each.
CIK=0000000000 # the company's ten-digit CIK
curl -s -H "User-Agent: Your Company data-team@example.com" \
"https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK${CIK}.json" |
jq -r '.filings.recent as $r
| range(0; ($r.form | length))
| select($r.form[.] == "10-K")
| [$r.filingDate[.], $r.accessionNumber[.]]
| @tsv'Each filing lives in the EDGAR archive under /Archives/edgar/data/ followed by the CIK and the accession number with its dashes removed. Open the main document in that folder and read Item 1.
The XBRL APIs, company concept, company facts and frames, serve what the SEC describes as XBRL data from financial statements. The employee count sits in the description of business, a non-financial portion of the report, so read it from the document itself and store it with the four values above. Kept that way, a series of counts is point-in-time data: each figure with the date it refers to and the date it became public.
Employee count as of which date, and how reliable an SEC 10-K annual report count is
A 10-K employee count is as of the date its own sentence names. Item 101 sets no date, so it can be the fiscal year end or another day. The count is reliable as the company's own figure in a filing its CEO and CFO certify, and it is bounded by a definition the company sets.
The SEC states that a company's CEO and CFO must certify the financial and certain other information in its annual reports on Form 10-K. The same report is filed by a fixed deadline and stays public on EDGAR. What the rule does not fix is the definition, so put five questions to every count before you compare it with another.
| Question | Where the answer is | What goes wrong if you skip it |
|---|---|---|
| As of which date? | The date in the sentence, beside the report's fiscal year end | Growth measured over the wrong span |
| Whom does it count? | Words such as full-time, part-time, temporary and contractors | A full-time count set against a total |
| Which entities? | The registrant and its subsidiaries, a segment or a country | An acquisition read as hiring |
| How exact? | Words such as approximately and more than | A rounded figure treated as exact |
| Under which text of the rule? | The form, and a filing date before or after 9 November 2020 | Counts written under different requirements set side by side |
Two annual reports of one company can differ on every row: the count can move from the year end to a later date, switch from all employees to full-time employees, or take in an acquired business. The entry on corporate hierarchy covers how subsidiaries roll up to the group, the level of Item 101's description of business.
Reliability of employee count data in annual reports compared to other sources
An annual report count is the company's own figure, given under a disclosure rule, in a dated filing that stays public on EDGAR. Other sources can be more recent but measure something else: a statement on the company's website, a count of public profiles, a size band on an employer page, or a modelled estimate.
The 10-K states how many people the company employs, in its own definition, once a year. A website statement is also the company's own, dated by the page if at all. A profile count moves with who keeps a public profile and what each person writes on it. A size band places the company in a range, and a model estimates from other inputs.
Company employee headcount disclosure: accuracy of the annual report vs profile and review sites
Accuracy depends on what each figure claims to measure. The annual report states the company's own count of persons employed, in its own definition and as of a date it names. A profile or review site counts people who name the company as employer, or shows a size band, so neither figure checks the other directly.
Employee count in the annual report vs a company headcount from profiles: the methodology
The methods differ at the root. An annual report count is stated by the company about its own workforce, under Regulation S-K, as of a date it names. A profile-based headcount counts public profiles that list the company as current employer on the day the count is built. Align date, definition and scope before comparing the two.
Four steps reconcile a 10-K count with a profile-based figure.
- Align the date. Note each figure's date and the days between them.
- Align the definition. Add any part-time, temporary or contractor figures the 10-K states outside its count.
- Align the scope. Check whether the profile figure covers the group or one brand, and where an acquisition sits.
- Read what remains. Treat the residual gap as a difference in method until a source shows otherwise.
Worked example: reconciling two 10-K counts for Acme Robotics
This example is illustrative. Acme Robotics is an invented company, and every figure below is an assumption.
Assumptions:
- Acme Robotics is an accelerated filer with a fiscal year ending 30 June, so each 10-K is due 75 days after the year end.
- Its fiscal 2025 report, filed on 10 September 2025, states approximately 3,900 employees as of 30 June 2025, of whom 3,600 were full-time, and about 450 contractors outside that count.
- Its fiscal 2026 report, filed on 11 September 2026, states approximately 4,700 full-time employees as of 31 August 2026, including about 520 who joined through an acquisition completed in March 2026. It gives no part-time or contractor figure.
- A profile-based headcount from another source, dated 30 September 2026, shows 5,600 public profiles naming Acme Robotics as current employer.
- Part-time staff and contractors stayed at their fiscal 2025 levels of 300 and 450, and all of them are in the profile figure.
The working:
- The deadlines. The 75th day after 30 June 2025 was 13 September 2025, and the 75th day after 30 June 2026 was 13 September 2026. Both reports were filed before it. The fiscal 2026 count was 11 days old when it became public.
- The definition. Read as printed, 3,900 to 4,700 is a rise of 800, or 20.5 per cent, but that sets a total against a full-time count. Full-time against full-time, 3,600 to 4,700 is a rise of 1,100, or 30.6 per cent.
- The scope. Taking out the 520 acquired employees leaves 4,180 full-time, 580 more than the year before: organic growth of 16.1 per cent.
- The dates. The two counts are 427 days apart, not 365. At a constant rate, 16.1 per cent over 427 days is 13.6 per cent a year: 4,180 divided by 3,600, raised to the power of 365 divided by 427, less 1.
- The profile count. 5,600 less 4,700 is 900. Part-time staff and contractors at their fiscal 2025 levels account for 750 of it, or 83.3 per cent. The remaining 150 is 2.7 per cent of the profile count.
| Measure | Growth | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| As printed, total against full-time | 20.5% | 3,900 to 4,700 |
| Full-time against full-time | 30.6% | 3,600 to 4,700 |
| Organic, full-time | 16.1% | 3,600 to 4,180, over 427 days |
| Organic, a year at a constant rate | 13.6% | 427 days scaled to 365 |
The two printed numbers suggest growth of 20.5 per cent. Read with their sentences, Acme Robotics grew 13.6 per cent a year on its own, 6.9 points less. Under these assumptions, five-sixths of the profile count's gap to the 10-K is the definition of who is counted.
How Fokals records stated headcounts
Employee Headcount, part of our Announcements and scale data, delivers stated headcount over time, one row per company, date and source. Each row holds the count as stated, the date the count refers to, its source and a reference to the statement it was read from, so every point traces back to its original. A growth rate between two rows is a rate between two statements, and the five questions above apply to each.
Every company carries one stable company ID, so a count joins to Hiring Activity, with its daily open, new and closed postings, for the months between two statements. A posting records an intention to hire, so read postings as the direction of travel between counts. Market Series carries a weekly median of year-over-year headcount change across industries, countries, size bands and markets, and its size bands are bands of stated employees. Every field is defined in the data dictionary.
Frequently asked questions
Is the number of employees required in a 10-K?
Item 101(c) of Regulation S-K calls for a description of the registrant's human capital resources, including the number of persons employed by the registrant, to the extent material to an understanding of its business taken as a whole. A smaller reporting company may instead give its number of total employees and of full-time employees, to the extent material. The figure appears in Item 1, Business.
Does the employee count in a 10-K include contractors?
That depends on the company's own sentence. We found no definition of a person employed in Item 101 of Regulation S-K, so the company's wording sets the scope. Read the sentence for the words full-time, part-time, temporary and contractor. Where the sentence is silent, treat the figure as employees in the company's own definition, and keep any contractor figure it states apart.
What date is a 10-K employee count as of?
The date its own sentence names. Item 101 of Regulation S-K sets no date, so the count can be as of the fiscal year end or another day before the report is filed. Record that date beside the fiscal year end and the filing date, and measure growth between the dates the sentences give, not between filing dates.
How do I search every 10-K for employee counts?
Use EDGAR full-text search, which covers the full text of filings submitted electronically since 2001, exhibits included. Set the form type to 10-K, choose a date range, and search an exact phrase such as "full-time employees", or two terms joined by NEAR(). For a list of companies, read each filing history through the SEC's submissions API, within the fair-access limit of 10 requests a second.
Why does a company's 10-K employee count differ from other headcount figures?
Because each measures something different on a different date. The 10-K states the company's own count, in its own definition, once a year. A count of public profiles measures people who name the employer, a size band places the company in a range, and a model estimates a figure. Align date, definition and scope before comparing, and read what remains as a difference in method.
Do foreign companies that file with the SEC report their number of employees?
A foreign private issuer files its annual report on Form 20-F, within four months of its fiscal year end, and the form carries a heading for employees under Item 6. Read that figure's own definition and date before setting it beside a 10-K count, and record which form each count came from.
The queries and code on this page are examples to adapt. Test them in your own environment before you rely on them.
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