Disney prepares a fourth round of layoffs this year

Some of the company's managers are to find savings equal to 20 percent of the annual costs of their areas. The layoffs could affect thousands of people, and some of the money is to go toward investments.

The Walt Disney Company is preparing another workforce reduction that could affect thousands of employees worldwide. The information was reported on Tuesday by Bloomberg, followed by, among others, pulsHR.pl (opens in a new tab) and Wirtualne Media (opens in a new tab). According to the agency, some managers were tasked with finding savings at the level of 20 percent of the annual costs of the areas they oversee.

This is a budget target for selected departments, not an announcement of laying off 20 percent of the workforce. The savings are to come both from eliminating positions and from reducing other operating expenses. The cuts are expected to affect different parts of the company to varying degrees, and the areas that may be covered include theme parks, television channels, and the film studio. Disney has not provided the number of positions to be eliminated or a timeline, and a company representative declined to comment to Bloomberg. At the end of 2025, the company employed around 231 thousand people.

CEO Josh D’Amaro wants to allocate some of the saved money to film and television production, technology, theme parks, and cruise voyages. As early as in an August letter to shareholders, D’Amaro and Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston announced further cost cuts, including spending on employment, sales, and administration.

This would be the fourth round of layoffs at Disney in 2026. In April, the company eliminated around a thousand positions, mainly as part of marketing consolidation. In July, the cuts affected, among others, Pixar, ESPN, Disney Entertainment Television, and the film studios. In September, several hundred people from the HR and IT departments lost their jobs - Reuters wrote about several hundred employees, CNBC about around 300. At the end of October, Disney reported in California the layoff of 159 people at Walt Disney Imagineering, effective December 29.

For comparison: after Bob Iger's return in 2022, the company laid off around 8 thousand people in 2023-2025 and saved $7.5 billion. More details may come on November 17, when Disney publishes its results for fiscal year 2026.

For companies working with the corporation, including agencies and technology providers, cutting operating expenses may mean smaller budgets for external contracts.