Disney on Monday begun its second round of layoffs, firing several thousand workers, sources told Reuters. The latest layoffs will bring the total reductions to nearly 4,000. Earlier this year, Disney said it would slash 7,000 jobs from its workforce as part of a larger reorganization of the company that will see it cut costs by $5.5 billion.
The announcement was made during Bob Iger’s first earnings call since returning as CEO. The cuts will occur across the company’s business segments, including Disney Entertainment, ESPN and Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, according to the sources, but are not expected to affect the hourly frontline workers employed at the parks and resorts.
According to CNBC, officials in Disney on Monday said that they don’t take the departure of so many colleagues lightly. Eliminating 7,000 jobs from its workforce equates to about 3 per cent of the roughly 220,000 people Disney employed as of October 1, according to a securities filing, with roughly 166,000 in the US and about 54,000 internationally.
Disney notified employees of a first wave of layoffs on March 27, which saw cuts in its metaverse strategies unit and part of its Beijing office. The second round, which will be completed Thursday, will affect various divisions across the company, including Disney Entertainment and ESPN, as well as Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. The jobs affected will span across the country from Burbank, California, to New York and Connecticut.
The company said it expects to start its third wave of layoffs before the beginning of the summer in order to reach the 7,000 target. Disney has previously said it doesn’t expect layoffs to affect its hourly workers at its parks and resorts.
Iger said earlier this year Disney’s cost reductions would include cutting $3 billion in content expenses, excluding sports, and the remaining $2.5 billion from non-content cuts. At that point, Disney executives said about $1 billion in cost-cutting had already been underway since last quarter.