Around 300 Disney Workers, Mostly in HR and Technology, Lose Their Jobs in a Third 2026 Layoff Round

Disney is laying off around 300 employees, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC, with the majority of the cuts in human resources and technology roles. Deadline put the count at a couple of hundred, and the Los Angeles Times put it at nearly 300. It is the third major round of layoffs since Josh D'Amaro became Disney's CEO, following around 1,000 positions in April and several hundred more in July. This piece is written for the HR generalists, recruiters, benefits specialists, IT engineers and long-serving managers who work at Disney or at other studios watching it. For Metaintro readers, and especially anyone affected, the practical detail is in what Disney has put in its shareholder letter, what its own job listings still pay, and what federal and California rules require when a large employer offers exit packages or cuts staff. Here is that detail, one question at a time.

What Did Disney Cut at the End of September?

The cuts began on September 29, 2026 and were concentrated primarily within human resources and information technology, affecting staff at the corporate level and across several divisions. The round is smaller than the two previous rounds of layoffs earlier this year. A Disney spokesperson declined to comment.

The TV division, Disney Entertainment Television, is reportedly not affected by the current staff reductions, and the motion picture studio is reportedly primarily exempt. Separate, unspecified job cuts in the legal and global affairs department, which has a bit less than 1,000 members globally, are not connected to this round.

Disney employed approximately 231,000 people as of fiscal year end 2025, with about 172,000 in the U.S. and about 59,000 outside it. That workforce was approximately 76% full-time and 16% part-time, with another 8% seasonal, and the part-time and seasonal shares are largely due to the company's theme parks and resorts businesses.

How Does This Round Fit Disney's Cuts So Far in 2026?

The first round came in April, when Disney eliminated around 1,000 positions, with many of those cuts connected to a consolidated enterprise marketing organization. The second came in July, with several hundred positions cut across corporate functions and businesses including Pixar, ESPN, Disney Entertainment Television and its film studios. Most of the July studio cuts fell on Pixar, while National Geographic accounted for most of the reductions within Disney's television group. ESPN's July cuts were driven in part by the integration of NFL Network assets, the shift behind Disney's ESPN layoffs as ESPN absorbed NFL Network.

In its August earnings release, Disney warned about the most recent round of reductions. Disney's shareholder letter of August 5, 2026 put a variety of levers, including reductions in labor and SG&A under evaluation and described the company as mid-stream in this work, with future updates to come.

Restructuring and impairment charges for the quarter ended June 27, 2026 included severance costs of $88 million, alongside an $812 million impairment of the investment in A+E.

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 CEO Josh D'Amaro and CFO Hugh Johnston wrote to shareholders, according to Disney's fiscal third quarter letter.

What Was the Voluntary Early Retirement Offer?

Before the layoffs, Disney ran a voluntary early retirement offer for employees at or above the director level who are 50 years old or older and have been at the company for at least 10 years. The cooling-off period for those who opted in ended the weekend before the cuts, sources told Deadline, and that kind of process typically is a precursor to involuntary staff reductions.

The offer began around the time of the August earnings release, when Disney began offering early-retirement buyout packages to longtime executives. The voluntary separation program is underway, and the number of executives who will exit later this year has not been determined, one knowledgeable source told the Los Angeles Times.

Disney President Dana Walden described the program as extremely generous, giving long-tenured executives agency and the opportunity to make their own decisions around whether the timing was right to leave.

What Did Dana Walden Say About the Layoffs?

Walden spoke at Bloomberg's Screentime conference in Los Angeles on October 1. She tied the cuts to the way Disney grew, with each acquired business keeping its own executives and profit-and-loss statements, and to a decision to centralize and run more as a television business and not a group of silos.

She pushed back on the idea that Disney leads the industry on job cuts, saying she did not think that in this exact moment Disney is the company that is going to be the tip of the spear around any kinds of efficiency targets or layoffs. On outside pressure, her line was that technology set their sights on our business, and we must survive and thrive and grow.

It is extremely painful. We've exited colleagues who I've worked with for most of my career and it is, in many ways, a harsh reality, Disney President Dana Walden said at Bloomberg's Screentime conference, according to the Los Angeles Times report.

Her advice to leaders at other studios facing cuts was to approach these processes with compassion and try to do the best by your colleagues, and to help departing staff find new jobs.

Why Are HR and Technology Teams Being Cut?

D'Amaro has prioritized a strategy dubbed One Disney that aims to better align the company's many divisions and integrate compatible businesses. Tech and HR are shared functions, and this round reached employees at the corporate level and across several divisions.

Entertainment workers are on edge given the headwinds of Big Tech competition and the rise of AI. Chief Legal and Global Affairs Officer Horacio Gutierrez described a transformation process that includes automating certain workflows by leveraging the latest technologies in a September 18 memo, sent as an email to LGA employees. That memo was about the Legal and Global Affairs division, and it ended up being widely shared across the company partly because of the notion that AI was likely to contribute to downsizing. Unspecified job cuts within the LGA department are not connected to the latest round of layoffs.

Barrett Media lists how much AI directly drove the latest HR reduction among the things that remain unclear. Separately, Disney is hiring to shape how staff use HR technology, AI-enabled tools, automation and self-service. A Director, Digital Employee Experience role sits in The Walt Disney Company's HR Technology organization and will set strategy for more than 230,000 employees worldwide. Its duties include advancing My Disney Assistant, digital onboarding and pre-boarding, unified employee portal experiences, and AI-enabled employee services. Disney does not mention the layoffs in that Digital Employee Experience listing.

Which HR, Technology and Legal Roles Is Disney Still Posting?

Disney is still advertising senior roles in these fields, including HR technology, labor relations and legal AI, and here are three of them with their pay and requirements.

• Director, Digital Employee Experience. The role is based in Orlando, Florida or Burbank, California and was posted on Sep. 09, 2026. The hiring range is $197,600 to $264,900 a year in Orlando, FL and $215,000 to $278,200 a year in Glendale, CA. Its requirements include a Bachelor's degree with at least 12 years of related work experience, plus product management and digital platform leadership experience.
• Sr Manager, Labor Relations. This Disney Experiences role in Lake Buena Vista, Florida was posted on Sep. 28, 2026 and has a hiring range of $145,900.00 to $195,600.00 a year. Its requirements include 5+ years of leadership experience in Labor Relations, Human Resources, Legal, or equivalent, first-chair experience representing clients in arbitrations, negotiations, mediations, and/or agency matters, and a Bachelor's degree, preferably in Employee Relations, Industrial Labor Relations, Business Administration, Human Resources, or equivalent field, with a JD or equivalent legal training strongly preferred.
• Director, AI Enablement and Legal Engineering. This corporate role in Burbank, California or New York was posted on Sep. 24, 2026. The hiring range is $185,500 to $248,800 a year in California and $196,600 to $260,600 a year in New York. Its requirements include a Juris Doctor from an accredited law school and licensed attorney in good standing, and 10+ years of experience in legal practice, legal operations, legal technology, consulting, transformation, or related fields.

For the labor relations role, the HR technology role and the legal AI role, base pay will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate's geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. The labor relations role handles WDW arbitration matters for Disney Experiences, and Walt Disney World is also the resort behind Disney World's plan for new Florida jobs.

What Must an Exit Package Give Workers Aged 40 or Older?

Disney's early retirement offer was aimed at employees at or above the director level who are 50 years old or older and have been at the company for at least 10 years. Federal rules apply whenever an employer asks employees age 40 and over to sign away age discrimination claims in return for a package. The Older Workers Benefit Protection Act sets specific requirements for a knowing and voluntary release, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission spells them out.

• Time to decide. A worker aged 40 or older must get at least 21 days to review the agreement, and if you and at least one other person are being laid off in a reduction in force (RIF) at the same time, you must be given 45 days to consider the agreement.
• Time to change your mind. A waiver must give an employee seven days to revoke his or her signature, and that period cannot be changed or waived.
• Information about who was picked. In a group program, the employer must disclose in writing the decisional unit, the eligibility factors, the time limits, the job titles and ages of all individuals who are eligible or who were selected, and the ages of all individuals in the same job classifications or organizational unit who are not eligible or who were not selected for the program.
• The rest of the bar. The waiver must also be written in a manner that can be clearly understood, specifically refer to rights or claims arising under the ADEA, advise the employee in writing to consult an attorney before accepting the agreement, not include rights and claims that may arise after the date on which the waiver is executed, and be supported by consideration in addition to that to which the employee already is entitled. Together with the review and revocation periods, these make up the seven factors for a knowing and voluntary waiver, and a waiver that fails any of them is invalid and unenforceable.
• Rights you keep. The agreement cannot ask you to waive your right to file a charge, testify, assist, or cooperate with the EEOC or rights or claims that may arise after the date you sign the waiver, and make sure it does not ask you to release claims for unemployment compensation benefits, workers compensation benefits, claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act, health insurance benefits under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), or claims with regard to vested benefits under a retirement plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

The employer has to advise the employee in writing to consult an attorney, so take that advice and have a lawyer read the agreement before you sign.

What Does California Require Before a Large Layoff?

Disney is based in Burbank, and California has its own WARN layoff notice rules. Under the state's WARN rules, an employer with 75 or more employees that plans a layoff of 50 or more employees within a 30-day period generally has to file a notice, and the notice must reach staff at least 60 days before the layoff.

That notice has to list the job titles of affected positions and the number of employees affected by job title, broken down by location when several sites are involved. A change that is new for 2026 means notices must also explain how the employer will support laid-off workers, saying whether it plans to work with the local workforce board, another organization, or not coordinate services, and including contact information and a short description of the services available to workers. Pixar filed a notice dated 07/21/2026 for a permanent layoff of 108 workers in Emeryville, listed in the latest California WARN data file of notices processed from 07/01/26 to 09/30/2026, and Pixar took most of Disney's studio cuts in July.

After a notice is processed, local Rapid Response teams provide job search assistance, offer training opportunities and explain unemployment insurance benefits to affected workers.

Are More Disney Cuts Expected?

Disney employees are bracing for further cuts. Many expect a significant television division restructuring early next year, which could result in hundreds of layoffs, according to the Wall Street Journal. Disney's legal government affairs department also will be downsized, according to a recent internal memo by Gutierrez.

The TV division is expected to undergo a major restructuring under new head Debra OConnell. Walden didn't say whether more cuts are coming within Disney's own ranks, and in August Disney committed that it will provide future updates on its progress.

What This Means for Job Seekers, and What Should You Do Next?

This round landed on shared functions like tech and HR. The cuts hit HR and IT at the corporate level and across several divisions, while Disney is still advertising senior roles in HR technology, labor relations and legal AI, with pay ranges reaching $278,200 a year. Disney's HR technology role asks for experience leading AI, automation, self-service, digital workplace, or comparable technology-enabled transformation initiatives, and its legal AI role asks for experience with AI-enabled solutions, legal technology implementation, workflow platforms, or innovation initiatives.

Here is what we would do:

• Read any exit deal against the federal rules. If you are 40 or older, check that you were given at least 21 days, or 45 days in a group layoff, and seven days to revoke, before you sign.
• Know the California WARN threshold. A layoff of 50 or more employees within a 30-day period at a covered employer generally triggers one, and local Rapid Response teams can help with job search and benefits.
• Retool toward the listings. Disney's HR technology role asks for experience leading AI, automation, self-service, digital workplace, or comparable technology-enabled transformation initiatives. If you run HR systems, onboarding or employee portals, put that work first on your resume.
• Look beyond one studio. Walden's own advice to studio leaders was to help departing staff find new jobs and connect with other businesses, so widen your search to other industries as well as other media companies.

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People Also Asked

Q: How many jobs did Disney cut in its latest layoffs?

A: Disney is laying off around 300 employees, mostly in human resources and technology roles, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC, while Deadline put the count at a couple of hundred and the Los Angeles Times put it at nearly 300.

Q: Who was eligible for Disney's voluntary early retirement offer?

A: The offer was open to employees at or above the director level who are 50 years old or older and have been at the company for at least 10 years.

Q: Is this Disney's third round of layoffs in 2026?

A: Yes, it is the third significant round of layoffs this year, after around 1,000 positions in April and several hundred in July.

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