2026 HUMAN CAPITAL DISCLOSURE TRENDS
You Can Still Read About a Company's Workforce. Comparing It Is Getting Harder.
Five years of human capital disclosure across U.S. public companies show a clear reversal. Companies largely kept reporting operational measures. Demographic and comparable disclosures disappeared much faster — particularly where regulatory or investor pressure receded.
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2026 Human Capital Disclosure Trends
17-page report examining five years of workforce and governance disclosure across U.S. public companies.
2026 Human Capital Disclosure Trends Data Book
The underlying trends, index and sector benchmarks, and additional data behind the analysis.
Data as of September 8, 2026
50% of S&P 1500 companies disclosed less this year than last. Just 11.8% disclosed more.
1. The retreat wasn’t indiscriminate
Companies largely kept reporting operational measures. Turnover disclosure retained 96% of its peak prevalence and new hires 92%. But attach a demographic breakdown to the same outcomes and disclosure falls much faster.
Companies kept counting who joined, advanced and left. Reporting who those employees were became far less common.
2. Disclosure fell fastest where requirements disappeared
After the Nasdaq board diversity rule was vacated, board demographic disclosure fell on both exchanges. But Nasdaq-listed companies — the ones previously subject to the rule — gave up 63.8 percentage points of gender disclosure, versus 29.7 points on the NYSE.
The standardized disclosure format disappeared with it.
3. The numbers left the filing
In 2024, 59.2% of S&P 500 companies included at least one quantitative workforce metric in a 10-K or proxy. Today, just 32.2% do.
Companies haven’t stopped talking about human capital. They have become much less willing to put comparable numbers next to the discussion.
Want the numbers behind the report?
The report tells the story. The accompanying 2026 Human Capital Disclosure Trends Data Book provides the underlying benchmarks for investors, researchers and companies that want to explore it further.
- Five-year trends across the S&P 100, S&P 500, S&P 1500 and Russell 2000
- Sector-level disclosure benchmarks
- Metric-level durability data
- Additional cuts underlying the report’s charts and analysis