Disney announces hiring suspension and expects pay cuts.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek told his managers in a letter that the company will be taking a series of cost-cutting measures to help it “achieve Disney+’s important profitability goal in fiscal 2024.”
Disney announces hiring suspension
According to an internal memo obtained by CNBC, Disney plans to limit new hires to its workforce through a targeted hiring suspension period. However, the company will still welcome new faces to “the most important positions and lines of business”, but all other vacancies are currently on hold. Bob Chapek also acknowledged in his letter that Disney “expects some staff cuts”as it looks for ways to cut costs across all aspects of its business.
and expects a pay cut
This email from the CEO comes shortly after Disney announced some pretty disappointing earnings for the last quarter. While Disney+ boasted 12.1 million new subscribers for its fiscal fourth quarter ended October 1, streaming operating losses rose from $0.8 billion to $1.5 billion. In any case, the company expects these losses to be reduced now by raising the prices of its streaming services as well as launching an ad-funded offering on Disney+. In his memo, Bob Chapek also reiterated, saying that he is “confident in [the company’s] ability to achieve its goals,”but Disney clearly intends to tighten the belt to achieve that goal.
Disney is one of many companies that have suspended hiring due to the economic situation. When Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg announced parent company Facebook would lay off 11,000 people, he added that the hiring moratorium now extended to the first quarter of 2023. A few days ago, he suspended recruitment.