Disney Says 32K Will Lose Jobs by March

More bad news from Disney: The company announced in a Thanksgiving Eve filing that it plans to lay off 32,000 workers by March of next year, 4,000 more than previously announced. Most of the laid-off workers will be employees at the company's theme parks in Florida and California, WESH reports. Disney World in Florida reopened in July, but Disneyland in California remains closed under COVID restrictions and is not expected to reopen before the end of the year. Disney said that as of Oct. 3, it had 203,000 employees, 155,000 of them in its "parks, experiences, and products" segment.

In the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filing, it said it had "generated efficiencies in its staffing, including limiting hiring to critical business roles, furloughs, and reductions-in-force," per USA Today. It said "approximately 37,000 employees who are not scheduled for employment termination were on furlough as a result of COVID-19’s impact on our businesses." The company said it had lost almost $600 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, which ended Oct. 3, and had incurred "additional costs to address government regulations and the safety of our employees, talent, and guests" as some of its businesses reopened. (More Disney stories.)