Disney Cuts Hundreds More Jobs in Third Layoff Round Under CEO D'Amaro

Disney has laid off several hundred employees in its third round of job cuts this year under CEO Josh D'Amaro, with human resources and technology roles taking the hit.

Deadline first reported the new cuts on Tuesday. A Disney spokesperson told the outlet that the layoffs primarily affect HR and technology positions. The company had signaled the move was coming.

In its August earnings report, Disney warned investors that reductions were on the table. "We remain highly focused on reducing costs across the enterprise to create incremental capacity to invest for growth and are evaluating a variety of levers, including reductions in labor and SG&A," Disney said in the report. "We are mid-stream in this work and will provide future updates on progress."

The technology angle is explicit. In a September 18 memo obtained by Deadline, Disney Chief Legal and Global Affairs Officer Horacio Gutierrez warned employees that "hard choices" about "staffing investments" were ahead, because "automating certain workflows by leveraging the latest technologies" would become common practice at the company.

Three rounds in under a year

D'Amaro took over as CEO earlier this year, replacing Bob Iger. The cuts began almost immediately. In April, D'Amaro oversaw layoffs of roughly 1,000 employees. In a memo obtained by the Associated Press, he framed the decision as operational streamlining.

"Over the past several months, we have looked at ways in which we can streamline our operations in various parts of the company to ensure we deliver the world-class creativity and innovation our fans value and expect from Disney," D'Amaro wrote.

He added: "Given the fast-moving pace of our industries, this requires us to constantly assess how to foster a more agile and technologically-enabled workforce to meet tomorrow's needs."

A second round followed in July, hitting workers at Pixar and National Geographic hardest. Tuesday's announcement makes three rounds of cuts in 2026 alone.

The restructuring continues against an awkward backdrop. Selections from former CEO Bob Chapek's memoir, which covers his time at the company and his firing, have been circulating. The excerpts allege Chapek was something of a scapegoat for the company's challenges and that he was blindsided by his dismissal. Iger handpicked Chapek as his successor, then returned to replace his own replacement.

An industry-wide squeeze

Disney is not cutting alone. Bad Robot and Sony Pictures both made layoffs in April. The pressures driving the cuts — AI-driven automation of production and corporate tasks, plus the continued shift of the media business toward streaming — span the entire industry.

The biggest consolidation play is still unfolding. In January, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison laid out plans to achieve roughly $6 billion in cost savings if Paramount succeeded in buying Warner Bros. This month, Paramount cleared its final regulatory hurdle to close that deal, after settling with California and other states.

For Disney, the message from the August earnings report remains the operative one: the company is "mid-stream" in its cost-reduction work and promises further updates. Employees in HR and technology have now learned what that means in practice — and the automation language in Gutierrez's memo suggests the next rounds, if they come, will target similar functions.