Disney Cuts a Few Hundred More Jobs in Fourth Layoff Round

A few hundred Walt Disney Co. employees, most of them in human resources and technology, lost their jobs on Tuesday, September 29, a person familiar with the situation confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. The move marks the fourth round of layoffs at the entertainment giant this year.

The cuts did not come out of nowhere. For months, Disney staff have been on edge as the company eliminated hundreds of positions while streamlining corporate operations, and employees expected more reductions to follow.

The pattern started in April, when CEO Josh D'Amaro — barely a month into the job — eliminated around 1,000 positions. Those April cuts concentrated in Disney's unified marketing organization, its studios and TV business, ESPN, and product & technology. A second wave followed in July, hitting some corporate functions, Disney Entertainment Television and the film studios, with Pixar and Nat Geo absorbing the largest share of the reductions.

Tuesday's action extends that sequence, but with a notable shift in targets. Where earlier rounds fell heavily on marketing, television and film production units, the latest cuts landed on internal support functions: HR and tech.

For workers tracking the company's direction, the sequence tells a story. D'Amaro is pushing to make Disney a leaner operation while increasing investment in areas the company considers strategic. That logic has consequences for individual market position. Roles in functions the company treats as overhead — HR, corporate support, parts of the marketing apparatus — have now been cut in multiple rounds within a single calendar year, while the company simultaneously signals it will keep spending on its strategic priorities.

The scope of Tuesday's reductions is modest compared with the roughly 1,000 jobs eliminated in April, but the cumulative signal matters for anyone employed at, or seeking work inside, the Burbank-based media conglomerate. Four rounds in roughly six months, spanning marketing, TV, studios, corporate functions, Pixar, Nat Geo, ESPN, HR and tech, indicate that no single business unit has been insulated.

Details on severance terms, exact headcount by division and which specific teams within HR and tech were affected have not been disclosed. The company has not announced an end date for the streamlining effort, and The Hollywood Reporter's source account suggests employees had anticipated further cuts before this round arrived.

Disney has framed the reductions as part of the broader effort to build a leaner company while channeling investment toward strategic growth areas, and with three rounds already completed before September, further reductions remain a live possibility as the program continues.