Disney Layoffs: Why is Disney cutting hundreds of jobs again under CEO Josh D’Amaro amidst future plans?

Disney is cutting hundreds more jobs as new CEO Josh D’Amaro continues a push to reduce costs across the company. The latest Disney layoffs are mainly hitting technology and human resources teams, according to Deadline. The cuts come just months after Disney eliminated 1,000 positions in April. The company also cut hundreds of jobs at Pixar, National Geographic and ESPN over the summer, as per a report by the New York Post.

Which Disney workers are affected?

D’Amaro reportedly began the latest round of layoffs on Tuesday, with a couple of hundred employees losing their jobs. According to Deadline, most of the affected workers are in Disney’s technology and HR divisions.

Disney’s television division and motion picture studio are not affected by the current cuts, the outlet reported.


The latest layoffs are smaller than the reductions announced in April, which came only weeks after D’Amaro replaced Bob Iger as Disney CEO.

Disney remains one of the world’s largest employers. The company had more than 231,000 employees at the end of fiscal 2025. About 172,000 of those workers were in the United States, while another 59,000 were international employees.

Why is Disney cutting jobs again?

Disney has been signaling that more cost-cutting measures were coming.

In an internal Sept. 18 memo obtained by Deadline, Disney Chief Legal and Global Affairs Officer Horacio Gutierrez warned employees about “hard choices” involving “staffing investments.” He also said the division would become “a much smaller organization.”

Gutierrez pointed to a “transformation process” that would include “automating certain workflows by leveraging the latest technologies,” an apparent reference to AI.

Disney has also offered an early retirement package to employees at the director level who are 50 or older as the company looks to reduce its workforce through voluntary departures.

D’Amaro and CFO Hugh Johnston had already pointed to further reductions in an Aug. 5 letter to shareholders. They said the company would “remain highly focused on reducing costs across the enterprise.”

“We remain highly focused on reducing costs across the enterprise to create incremental capacity to invest for growth and are evaluating a variety of levers, including reductions in labor and SG&A,” the execs wrote in the Aug. 5 letter. “We are mid-stream in this work and will provide future updates on our progress.”

D’Amaro’s plans for Disney

D’Amaro took over from Iger as CEO in March and appeared at the D23 Expo in August for the first time in the role.

His message there focused on Disney’s plans for the future and its long-standing goal of creating memorable experiences for audiences.

“We’re not here waiting for the future. We’re building it. We’re actually building it right now,” he said. “We have new stories for you coming, experiences that will literally take your breath away, announcements that will make you lean forward and ask that person that’s sitting next to you, ‘Did you hear that? Can you believe they’re going to do that?'”

The latest Disney layoffs show that the company is cutting in some areas while continuing to talk about new stories and experiences. For employees, however, the immediate focus is the latest round of job losses as Disney continues its cost-cutting effort.

FAQs

How many Disney jobs are being cut?
A couple of hundred employees are reportedly affected by the latest layoffs.

Which Disney teams are affected?
Most of the cuts are in technology and human resources.