Disney just got a new CEO in Josh D’Amaro, and he didn’t take long to start the layoffs. Disney is laying off as many as 1,000 employees over the next few months. This is D’Amaro’s first big move since taking over the CEO reins on March 18 at the annual shareholder meeting.
Reportedly, a big chunk of these layoffs is tied to a marketing consolidation that has been in the works for a while. In January, Disney promoted Asad Ayaz to Chief Marketing and Brand Officer, and had plans to combine marketing efforts across its film, TV, and streaming divisions. In an effort to cut redundancy. Many of these layoffs are coming from that restructuring.
This represents less than 0.5% of Disney’s workforce being laid off
Obviously, 1,000 people being laid off is not good news, and it’s a pretty big number. But, in the grand scheme of things, it represents about 0.4% of Disney’s workforce, which consists of over 230,000 workers. A big chunk of that workforce is part-time theme park employees.
Keep in mind that former-CEO Bob Iger had much larger layoffs in his second stint as CEO, laying off over 8,000 workers from 2023 to 2025. This saved Disney $7.5 billion, which was far more than what Disney was projecting.
That’s the new playbook for Disney: cost-cutting. D’Amaro is stepping in as CEO in a time when the company has already been through years of cost-cutting, and it’s clear things aren’t done yet. This isn’t a surprise, as the industry as a whole is in a belt-tightening mode, with consolidation happening across the industry, including Paramount buying Warner Bros Discovery, after Netflix walked away.
The theme parks are still the biggest revenue driver for Disney, despite the fact they continue to raise prices to astronomical levels. Disney has also been focusing more on its Cruise business, and expanding that recently. But Disney Plus is also doing very well for the company.
Disney has had four rounds of layoffs in the past 10 months.
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