Disney Lays Off Several Hundred Corporate-Level Employees

Disney has axed about 300 employees across multiple corporate departments, as the Mouse House continues to look at “ongoing” ways to trim costs.

“We continually evaluate ways to invest in our businesses and more effectively manage our resources and costs to fuel the state-of-the-art creativity and innovation that consumers value and expect from Disney,” a company rep said in a statement to Variety. “As part of this ongoing optimization work, we have been reviewing the cost structure for our corporate-level functions and have determined there are ways for them to operate more efficiently.”

The round of Disney layoffs affected human resources, legal, finance and other departments in the U.S. The latest cuts come after Disney in July let go about 140 employees in its television division, representing about 3% of its workforce. In May, Pixar laid off 175 workers, approximately 14% of its headcount.

The cuts are a far cry from the mass layoffs Disney conducted in 2023 after Bob Iger returned as CEO — a companywide reduction in force that targeted the elimination of some 7,000 jobs, about 3.2% of the media conglomerate’s total global workforce.

Last month, Disney projected an upbeat end to the 20224 fiscal year, which concludes at the end of September: It raised the target for full-year adjusted earnings per share growth to 30%, up from 25% previously. For the June quarter, Disney beat Wall Street expectations on revenue and profit and the company reported its first-ever profitable quarter for the consolidated direct-to-consumer streaming business (which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+). However, operating profit for Disney’s domestic theme parks declined 6% in the period and the company warned that ongoing weak demand could hamper the segment’s results for the next few quarters. 

The layoffs this week in Disney’s corporate divisions was first reported by Deadline.