Disney announces fourth round of layoffs, cutting several hundred staff
The Walt Disney Company laid off a few hundred employees, mainly in human resources and technology, as part of a broader cost-reduction plan that has already seen multiple rounds of job cuts this year.
The Walt Disney Co. laid off a few hundred workers on Tuesday, primarily affecting human resources and technology divisions, according to a source familiar with the matter. This marks the fourth wave of reductions the entertainment conglomerate has undertaken in 2024.
In April, CEO Josh D’Amaro announced the elimination of about 1,000 positions across Disney’s unified marketing, studio, television, ESPN, and product and technology units. A subsequent round in July targeted corporate functions, Disney Entertainment Television, and film studios, with the deepest cuts at Pixar and National Geographic.
The latest layoffs are part of D’Amaro’s effort to create a leaner organization while directing more resources toward strategic growth areas. In an August shareholder letter, D’Amaro and CFO Hugh Johnston said Disney was "mid-stream" in its cost-reduction initiatives and expected further updates.
"We’re highly focused on operating with speed and agility and improving productivity and efficiency across the company so we can invest in accelerating growth," the company wrote in the letter, adding that it was pursuing "meaningful reductions to cost, including labor."
Disney’s push to automate corporate work adds another layer to the restructuring. On Sept. 18, Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s chief legal and global affairs officer, told employees the firm was undergoing a "transformation process" that would involve "hard choices" as it redesigns its workforce to incorporate artificial-intelligence and other technologies. He indicated that the legal and global affairs department would become a much smaller organization and that some staff would be affected.
Earlier layoffs in July also saw on-air talent at ESPN, such as longtime SportsCenter anchor Karl Ravech and analyst Ryan Clark, lose their positions, though most cuts that month involved behind-the-scenes staff linked to the recent NFL Network acquisition.
Disney reported a global workforce of roughly 231,000 employees at the end of fiscal 2025, including about 172,000 in the United States.