Few industries have been hit as hard by COVID-19 as theme parks. The inherent safety risks have led to most existing parks closing down and the opening of new ones being delayed indefinitely, as Universal Studios’ Super Nintendo World has. As a result of this, Disney has announced that it’s making huge reductions in its Parks, Experiences, & Products division, which will result in 28,000 employees being laid off.
In a statement shared on Twitter today, Parks chairman Josh D’Amaro touched upon the factors behind this move. His statement mainly centers on the situation with Disney’s California-based parks, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. These have been closed since March, and California state guidelines have delayed Disneyland from reopening in any capacity, unlike Disney World and the company’s other Florida-based parks.
With the state government’s “unwillingness to lift restrictions that would allow Disneyland to reopen,” D’Amaro said Disney has begun the process of cutting the Parks divisions’ workforce across all levels. Of the 28,000 employees being laid off, 67% are part-time workers. D’Amaro went on to say that the company is discussing the layoffs with the impacted employees, as well as the unions representing a number of them. He didn’t go into detail here, but stated that one thing being discussed is possible opportunities for reemployment once the pandemic is over.
While it remains to be seen if theme parks in California will reopen anytime soon, there are people still hoping to be able to draw crowds in the state this year. This week, news broke that LA Comic Con may still host an in-person event in December, despite many concerns that COVID-19 won’t be gone before then. It’s understandable that people want things to return to normal, but it’s also possible that this could only serve to prolong the pandemic, resulting in more layoffs across affected industries.
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