This week has marked the first wave of Bob Iger’s bloodbath of layoffs within the Walt Disney Company. Over the next few months, 7,000 employees at Disney will lose their job position. This news is tragic for all of the employees who are affected. Of the terminated employees, many will be based in Florida. As more and more employees get the chop, the public and the state of Florida are beginning to wonder what will be the economic results of the layoffs.
Could the Disney Layoffs Be Catastrophic for the State?
Earlier this week, Disney CEO Bob Iger sent a message to Disney employees where he informed them that job cuts will begin this week. This has left employees in all areas of the company feeling insecure about their job stability. Right now, most of the public job layoffs have had to do with major executives of the chairman. In the future, the layoffs will likely also include employees and Cast Members of the Walt Disney World Resort.
The budget cuts are part of CEO Bob Iger’s plan to cut $5.5 billion in costs. The 7,000 employees will be laid off in three waves. The first wave is happening this week. Another larger wave is coming in a few weeks in April. The final wave will happen before the beginning of summer. As these waves continue, some people in Orlando are beginning to fear the effects of the job cuts on the local economy.
As reported by Fox35 news, Orlando State Representative Anna Eskamani is concerned if this will be a similar situation to the pandemic in terms of employment.
She explained, “The state’s unemployment system is not even able to handle small unemployment levels let alone large. We continue to get emails from constituents from across the state of Florida who are experiencing delays with the unemployment system.”
Florida Cannot Handle the Projected Job Layoffs
The fact is that Florida cannot handle a worse unemployment problem than it already has. Right now, there are not enough resources to help a larger population of jobless people. “So the options for someone to continue to pay their bills on time, be healthy and strong, have food in their belly and a roof over their head as they get back on their feet is just really not a reality in Florida,” Eskamani said.
Only time will tell the repercussions as the job cuts continue.