Disney layoffs resumed on Tuesday, September 29, as the company began cutting hundreds of employees, primarily in its human resources and IT departments across corporate and within its individual divisions. It is the third round of job cuts in 2026 under CEO Josh D’Amaro, who succeeded Bob Iger in March.
This round is smaller than the two earlier this year. Outside shared functions like tech and HR, Disney Entertainment Television and the motion picture studio are largely spared. The TV division is expected to undergo a major restructuring of its own under its new head, Debra OConnell.
How The Cuts Fit Disney’s Cost Plan
Disney eliminated about 1,000 roles in April, largely tied to D’Amaro’s creation of a consolidated enterprise marketing division under Chief Marketing and Brand Officer Asad Ayaz. In July, several hundred more jobs were cut across corporate functions, ESPN, Disney Entertainment Television and the studios, with most of the studio cuts at Pixar and most of the TV group cuts at National Geographic.
The 2026 rounds are a fraction of the size of the cuts Iger oversaw after he returned in 2022. Between 2023 and 2025, some 8,000 workers were let go, helping Disney reach $7.5 billion in cost savings, far above its initial forecasts. Disney had 231,000 employees at the end of fiscal 2025, including 172,000 in the U.S. and 59,000 elsewhere.
The new layoffs follow Disney’s voluntary early retirement offer to employees at the director level and above who are 50 or older and have at least 10 years with the company. That process typically precedes involuntary cuts, and the cooling-off period for those who opted in ended over the weekend. When the offer went out in August, Chief People Officer Sonia Coleman said involuntary staff reductions would continue into next year.
D’Amaro and Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston signaled more cuts in their August 5 letter to shareholders, writing that Disney was “evaluating a variety of levers, including reductions in labor and SG&A,” or selling, general and administrative expenses. “We are mid-stream in this work and will provide future updates on our progress,” they added.
Legal Department Cuts Are A Separate Track
Tuesday’s layoffs are not connected to an unspecified number of cuts coming to the legal and global affairs department, which has a little under 1,000 employees worldwide. In a September 18 memo, Chief Legal and Global Affairs Officer Horacio Gutierrez warned staff of “hard choices” about “staffing investments” and said the division would become “a much smaller organization.” He also described a “transformation process” that includes “automating certain workflows by leveraging the latest technologies.”
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