In a memo to employees, new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro has confirmed the rumored layoffs affecting up to 1,000 employees in the company’s streamlined marketing and brand organization. Here’s the latest, along with why this shouldn’t impact Cast Members at Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
Rumor of the layoffs surfaced last week, which we first reported in Josh D’Amaro Continues Rough First Month as New Disney CEO. The cuts reportedly reflect consolidation in the company’s marketing areas, following restructuring that started in January to create a unified enterprise marketing and brand organization. In addition to that, the layoffs are expected to affect employees across the company’s studio and television units, including ESPN, Product & Technology and the corporate side.
Many fans believe that Josh D’Amaro gets a “free pass” on negative news because he’s smoother than Chapek was, and presents more compassionately. They’ve claimed that there’s very little daylight between Chapek, Iger, and D’Amaro. That they’re all cut from the same cloth and will make similar decisions at the end of the day, just with different optics.
There’s probably at least some truth to this, and we feel it’s important to spotlight these layoffs now that they’ve been confirmed, so we’re not just focusing on the good, but also the bad and ugly. Although we’ve largely been bullish about D’Amaro being named CEO, there were several negative decisions made during his tenure as Parks Chair, and we were not been shy about pointing those out.
We will continue to do so, as part of our ‘job’ as members of the fan community is to hold leadership accountable. To act as a check or counterweight to sometimes shortsighted business decisions made at the behest of investors. Layoffs are probably the quintessential example of this tension between Wall Street and fans/employees, although there’s often more to it than that. Not all layoffs are equally bad, except (obviously) for those impacted directly.
Since we’ve been covering Disney, the worst was when Walt Disney World and Disneyland laid off over 28,000 Cast Members in Fall 2020, which was one of several waves of company-wide layoffs. It was heartbreaking news then, but one we wrote was chosen from a “veritable buffet of least-bad choices” at the time.
We’ve since learned how much worse and sooner those layoffs could’ve been, as reporting in 2022 revealed that Bob Chapek wanted to fast-track layoffs during the early days of COVID to cut costs and preserve cash. Bob Iger wanted to delay layoffs until the CARES Act was signed into law. Iger’s calculation was that it was better to wait–both for the sake of Cast Members and the company–for the statutory protections and government relief.
Iger won by convincing Disney’s board of directors that it was pragmatic to wait, and the company continued to pay Cast Members. Once the CARES Act was signed into law and Cast Members had protection via that, Disney began to furlough tens of thousands of workers that April. With the slow phased reopening of the parks, the sweeping layoffs still ended up happening that fall.
After tens of thousands of Cast Members were laid off during the closure, D’Amaro was at Downtown Disney apologizing to Cast Members and allowing them to vent for hours on end. We mention this because that was polarizing at the time; some fans gave kudos to him, whereas others viewed D’Amaro as having his cake and eating it too. Even though the layoffs were happening in D’Amaro’s division, his reputation emerged largely unscathed, and he was viewed sympathetically.
We also mention it because, with the benefit of hindsight, the layoffs were a bad long-term decision for Walt Disney World and Disneyland. The parks struggled to rehire and retain new Cast Members on both coasts once pent-up demand kicked into high gear.
As a result, capacity was reduced for years as a result in a multitude of ways, most of which have meant Disney was leaving money on the table during a period of unprecedented consumer spending on travel. The case could be made that the domestic Disney Parks still haven’t completely recovered from the COVID era layoffs, even ~6 years later.
That feels like worthwhile background when it comes to layoffs and Disney, and something we didn’t discuss when the April 2026 layoffs were first rumored. With regard to the present cuts, here’s Josh D’Amaro’s memo to employees:
Dear Fellow Employees & Cast Members,
We have experienced a great deal of change these last few years, both at the company and across our industries. Knowing firsthand how these moments can bring uncertainty, I want to be open about some difficult news that will be communicated this week.
In January, we announced our unified enterprise marketing and brand organization, designed to serve consumers in an even more connected way. Over the past several months, we have looked at ways in which we can streamline our operations in various parts of the company to ensure we deliver the world-class creativity and innovation our fans value and expect from Disney.
Given the fast-moving pace of our industries, this requires us to constantly assess how to foster a more agile and technologically-enabled workforce to meet tomorrow’s needs. As a result, we will be eliminating roles in some parts of the company and have begun notifying impacted employees.
I know this is hard. Those that will be leaving us have done meaningful work here and care deeply about this company. These decisions are not a reflection of their contributions, or of the overall strength of the company. Rather, they reflect our continual evaluation of how to more effectively manage our resources and reinvest in our businesses.
Compassion and respect remain at the heart of our company. As we move forward through this transition, our priority is to support those impacted and help each person navigate what comes next with resources, guidance, and direct support.
Despite these difficult decisions, I remain optimistic about where we’re headed as a company. I’m deeply grateful for all of your contributions and for the dedication, professionalism, and care you bring to your work each day. Even in challenging moments, you continue to demonstrate what makes Disney so special.
Josh
Since these layoffs were previously (accurately) rumored, some of what follows is modified commentary from our previous post on the subject…
As hinted at by the memo, layoffs have become a brutal reality across the entertainment industry. Sony Pictures, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have already cut staff. More layoffs are expected if and when Paramount acquires Warners.
Disney and these other studios have been adjusting to the ‘new normal’ of smaller profits from streaming as contrasted with linear television, as well as diminished box office, and intense competition from tech companies. Disney is also combining the staff of its Disney+ and Hulu as it merges the streaming services into one app, and redundancies will result from that.
Although not mentioned by the memo, one of the rumored motivations for the layoffs is Disney’s desire to free up money from the studio and streaming side to invest in businesses where it sees growth potential. With at least $60 billion earmarked for Parks & Resorts expansion, it’s safe to assume Walt Disney World and Disneyland are such growth engines.
Disney employed 231,000 people at the end of its 2025 fiscal year, some 80% working in the Experiences division, which includes the labor-heavy theme parks and cruise line (plus consumer products). Most layoffs since 2022 have occurred in Disney’s entertainment, ESPN and corporate side.
Disney has laid off more than 8,000 people since Bob Iger returned as CEO in 2022 and began a major restructuring. The big round of 7,000 layoffs under Iger concerned mostly the metaverse, streaming and studios. Disney specifically stated at the time that it would not impact frontline Cast Members at the parks.
Since the time those layoffs started under Iger, Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and Disney Cruise Line have all seen their headcounts increase. It has not yet been confirmed whether the Parks & Resorts business will see any layoffs in Spring 2026, but if they do occur, we would not expect frontline Cast Members to be impacted. If anything, the parks are still shorthanded in many of those roles.
Disney has been consolidating operations to cut costs and coordinate marketing efforts across its divisions. Earlier this year, the company combined marketing departments for entertainment, experiences and sports under new Chief Marketing Officer, Asad Ayaz.
Beyond his plan for united the company as “One Disney,” D’Amaro hasn’t laid out specifics for reshaping the company since taking over last month. Those close to the company said one of his priorities is having different divisions collaborate more quickly and efficiently, according to previous reporting. Unsurprisingly, employees in those divisions have feared layoffs would be part of that equation.
None of this is a great look for D’Amaro so early on in his tenure. No matter what the nuanced reality of when this initiative started or the fact that layoffs are part of business, especially a contracting one, this is the latest negative news during what’s already been a challenging first month for D’Amaro.
Ultimately, as D’Amaro should’ve learned back during the COVID closure when his reputation among fans emerged unscathed from layoffs, optics matter a lot–perhaps more than they should. Although the devil is in the details, there’s no universe where layoffs are viewed positively by the fan community. Nor is there one where someone other than the CEO can be blamed for them. Now that he’s in that seat, the buck stops with Josh.
It was certainly a choice to make his first big announcement be layoffs, so it’d be nice to counter that with positive investment in the company. After he was named CEO, we published 11 Great Changes Josh D’Amaro Could Make at Walt Disney World for Big Wins. It’s not too late to implement a couple of those suggestions, and score wins with theme park fans. It won’t undo the negative PR from the layoffs, but it would nevertheless be welcome news.
If D’Amaro wants to directly counter the layoffs news, Disney could announce that they’re reinvesting in live entertainment at the parks. There are still several stage shows, atmospheric acts, performers, parades and spectaculars at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland that are missing as compared to 2019. And all while business is booming and the parks are reporting record results. I’m not holding my breath on that ever changing, unfortunately.
As someone who pretty much only cares about the theme parks, I am a staunch advocate of the company investing more money in Walt Disney World and Disneyland, and less waste occurring in the other divisions that the parks are forced to subsidize. This has been one of our big complaints over the years–that Walt Disney World is treated as the cash cow that finances the company’s forays and follies into other endeavors, and is milked when said projects operate at a loss.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of Josh D’Amaro’s memo announcing the layoffs? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
