Disney Confirms 159 Imagineering Layoffs in Glendale

By Tom Whitfield

159 Walt Disney Imagineering employees in Glendale, California, are set to lose their jobs on December 29, according to a state layoff filing Disney submitted on October 27.

What does the filing establish?

A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN), the notice used for mass layoffs, identifies 159 affected positions at Disney’s Glendale Imagineering office. That is an exact headcount for the filing, not a sample estimate.

Disney filed the notice on October 27. It takes effect December 29, meeting the 60-day notice requirement under California’s WARN Act.

The source calls Imagineering the biggest hit in Disney’s latest layoff round. No later revision to the 159-position count appears in the source.

Takeaway: The filing fixes the latest cut at 159 Glendale jobs and sets December 29 as the effective date.

What did Disney say caused the cuts?

The Los Angeles Times first reported that Disney would lay off between 100 and 200 people from Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Entertainment. An anonymous source told the Times that the reductions came from regular evaluations of how the division performed against its “priorities, investments, and project timelines.”

The filing adds precision, but not a public role-by-role explanation. For an individual applicant, 159 affected positions mean tighter employer-specific demand around that work, while the source identifies no replacement hiring or backfills.

Takeaway: The 159-job count is firm, but the stated rationale still comes from an anonymous source rather than a detailed public plan.

How does this fit Disney’s broader job cuts?

Josh D’Amaro succeeded Bob Iger as CEO. In April, Disney laid off more than 1,000 employees. In July, hundreds of workers at Pixar, ESPN and National Geographic followed.

By September, D’Amaro had confirmed and executed hundreds of layoffs, primarily in technology and human resources (HR), as Disney tried to keep pace with changes in the economy and entertainment industry. The source does not classify the 159 Imagineering positions as technology or HR roles.

Together, these actions show repeated companywide restructuring during 2025, with the Glendale notice adding a precise location and headcount to a sequence spanning corporate functions and major entertainment units.

Disney ended fiscal 2025 with 231,000 employees. It employed 172,000 in the United States and 59,000 elsewhere. Another 16% of employees were part-time, and 8% were seasonal, a mix Disney attributes to its theme parks business.

These are employer-level figures, not a national hiring or unemployment series. The source offers no occupational-demand data for inferring a broader U.S. labor-market trend.

Takeaway: Disney’s reductions form a sustained company pattern, not an isolated Glendale event, though one filing cannot establish a national downturn.

Why do theme parks drive the employment stakes?

Disney’s theme parks division is the company’s largest and the foundation of its bottom line. It generated $36.2 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025, accounting for more than 56% of Disney’s total income.

That financial weight makes the division strategically central, but it does not make each project or role secure. The Times source linked this round to evaluations of investment and project timing, which can change internal demand without signaling weakness in total theme-park revenue.

For workers, Disney’s large part-time and seasonal base adds context. Those employment categories are more common because of the theme parks business, while the source provides no severance, recall or hiring-backfill details for the 159 affected employees.

Job applicants should separate revenue strength from role stability. Disney’s reviews of priorities, investments and project timelines remain the specific mechanism behind the announced cuts.

Takeaway: Disney’s largest business can still produce project-level job losses; strong revenue does not guarantee stable hiring inside any one team.

If Disney proceeds as filed, 159 Glendale workers will lose their jobs on December 29. The next measurable check is any revision to the WARN notice. Until then, the evidence supports a company-specific cost-reduction trend, not a Disney hiring forecast.