Disney cuts 4,000 more jobs as Covid-19 hits theme parks

Walt Disney announced another 4,000 job cuts on Thursday after Covid-19 lockdowns forced the closure of its theme parks.

It takes the number of layoffs in the first half of fiscal 2021, mostly at Disney’s parks, experiences and products divisions, to 32,000 — more than 1/10 of its total workforce. The company’s parks in California remain closed due to a standoff with the state over lockdown measures.

Results earlier in November revealed how the coronavirus pandemic has hammered Disney’s traditional businesses such as studios, parks and cruises while accelerating a pivot to streaming. The theme parks showed a loss of $1.1bn in quarterly results this month, made up for by surging growth in its on-demand video platform Disney+, which smashed subscriber number estimates.

CEO  Bob Chapek, who took over from long-time chief Bob Iger in February, shook up the company’s management structure in October to further emphasise streaming. With movie theatres still closed, Disney released its remake of Mulan on Disney+.

Disney shares are up 3.1% in 2020  through to the end of Wednesday.

Bloomberg