Walt Disney has announced it will lay off 28,000 members of staff, most of which work at its theme parks in the US.
Limited visitor capacity and uncertainty about the future have been labelled as the principle reasons for the redundancies.
Disney has been heavily impacted by the pandemic. All its parks were forced to shut earlier in the year. Disneyland in California remains closed.
In the three months to June 27, 2020, Disney lost $4.7bn. Revenues for its Parks, Experiences and Products division fell by 85 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2019.
Around 67 per cent of the layoffs will affect part-time employees.
Josh D’Amaro, chairman of the Disney parks unit, commented: “We have made the very difficult decision to begin the process of reducing our workforce at our Parks, Experiences and Products segment at all levels.”
D’Amaro said Disney’s problems have been “exacerbated in California by the state’s unwillingness to lift restrictions that would allow Disneyland to reopen.”
