On February 8th, 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger spoke on behalf of the Walt Disney Company during the quarter one earnings call for fiscal year 2023. In this call, Iger announced that major restructuring within the company would ultimately lead to 7,000 job cuts.
Josh D’Amaro — Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products (DPEP) Chairperson — recently sent an email to Disney Cast Members, commenting on the workforce reduction.
In this email, D’Amaro stated that every segment across the Walt Disney Company would be impacted by these job cuts. This includes Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products.
However, these cuts will not affect those working in hourly frontline operations roles, such as the Cast Members you see in the Disney parks each day, running the rides, restaurants, and gift shops.
In an email to cast, Josh D’Amaro said workforce reductions will impact every segment across the company, including Parks, Experiences, and Products. However, he said the company does NOT expect it to impact hourly frontline roles in operations. pic.twitter.com/rQYJ7ABG4l
— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) February 9, 2023
While our thoughts go out to those impacted by this major workforce reduction, we’re glad that Cast Members in the parks won’t be heavily affected. Disney still has many job listings open for hourly roles in the theme parks, and the Disney College Program (which contributes a significant number of workers in the parks), which returned in 2021, is still happening.
Disney noted that the 7,000 job cuts announced previously include eliminating some open positions that Disney is currently hiring for, so not all of the positions are technically layoffs.
We’re keeping up with all the most recent Disney news and updates, so make sure to follow along so that you don’t miss anything! Click the link below for more updates from the Q1 earnings call for fiscal 2023.
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What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
I’m very appreciative of every bit of information I can find re: layoffs. My 2 roommates as well as my significant other all work for Disney in person to person guest service positions although they work from home by phone and internet, not in the parks. For them, I’ve been worried sick since the 1st announcement of the Iger memo. Please do continue you to update us with whatever info you come across. Some of us will face devastating consequences if terminated, depending on the various challenges and hardships that occur for those of us with everyday average hourly wage job lifestyles.
This of course makes sense, the park frontline cast members and the college program cast members make the least amount of money even though they are the ones making all the magic for guests. they actually should make more money because of that, but the lower pay is saving their jobs right now.
Laying off the higher ups that make more money is the beneficial financial gain for Disney
You’ve hit the issue precisely! As most very large companies, Disney has become “top heavy” in management and executive positions. Positions that perform very little and certainly do not generate profit, guest satisfaction, or cast member satisfaction…but instead are think tank generated and costly experimental initiatives.
The parks division was one of the more profitable divisions in the recent quarterly earnings report, so it would make no sense to cut the workforce there (Thank you, Mr. Iger!)