Disney Cuts a Few Hundred More Jobs in Third Round This Year

Disney is laying off a few hundred employees across multiple departments, Variety has confirmed — the company's third round of job cuts this year under recently appointed CEO Josh D'Amaro.

The layoffs primarily affect Disney's human resources and IT departments, across corporate functions and within different divisions, according to a source familiar with the cuts. Deadline first reported the latest wave on Tuesday.

The cuts follow an explicit warning from Disney's leadership. In an Aug. 5 letter to shareholders accompanying results for the June 2026 quarter, D'Amaro and CFO Hugh Johnston wrote: "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" — a reference to selling, general and administrative expenses. The executives added: "We are mid-stream in this work and will provide future updates on our progress."

How many jobs has Disney cut in 2026?

The company has now carried out three rounds of layoffs this year:

• April: Disney eliminated about 1,000 roles, primarily through D'Amaro's creation of a consolidated enterprise marketing division under Asad Ayaz, chief marketing and brand officer.
• July: Several hundred more jobs were cut across corporate functions, including at Pixar, ESPN, Disney Entertainment Television and Disney's studios. Most of the studio-side layoffs hit Pixar; the majority of cuts in the TV group fell at National Geographic.
• This week: A few hundred further positions, concentrated in HR and IT.

In August, Disney also offered early-retirement buyout packages to longtime executives as part of the same cost-cutting effort.

How large is the workforce being reduced?

Disney reported about 231,000 full- and part-time employees as of September 2025, the end of its fiscal year. This week's cuts represent a small fraction of that total, but the cumulative pattern — three rounds in under a year, paired with executive buyouts — signals a sustained restructuring rather than a one-off adjustment.

D'Amaro and Johnston's August letter framed the reductions as a means to an end: freeing up capital for investment in growth. Their statement that the company is "mid-stream in this work" suggests employees should expect further announcements as Disney continues to trim labor and administrative costs through the rest of the fiscal year.