Disney-owned animation studios may cut jobs this year

Last year, Disney cut thousands of jobs affecting employees working in Disney Entertainment and ESPN, as well as Disney Parks, Experiences and Products divisions. As per the latest development, Walt Disney's Pixar Animation Studios is now set to witness job cuts over the coming months.

According to a source familiar with the situation, news agency Reuters reported that the studio has completed production on some shows and now has more staff than it needs.

“Pixar's Emeryville studio in California had hired staff to complete streaming series and as those shows complete production it has more staff than it needs,” the source told the publication.

It was reported that Pixar was set to undergo layoffs as high as 20% this year, with the studio's team of 1,300 people reduced to under 1,000. However, the number of employees that may be laid off are disputed as Pixar was yet to determine how many employees would lose their jobs.

The publication said that while there is no estimate of how many job cuts the studio expected, the layoffs are not expected to impact Pixar's theatrical output.

Previous job cuts at Disney
Disney CEO Bob Iger was brought back in 2022 to turn the company around. He signalled the company will reduce streaming content it makes itself in a bid to keep a lid on costs. In June last year, Pixar eliminated 75 positions including those of two executives.

In 2023, Disney said it would cut 7,000 jobs from its workforce in a bid to cut costs by $5.5 billion. The layoff was said to be a part of a larger reorganisation of the company.

At that time, Disney officials said that they did not take the departure of 7,000 jobs, which equates to about 3% of the total workforce, lightly.