In a press conference on Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was posed a question about extending unemployment benefits given the fact that tens of thousands of theme park employees are being laid off in the coming months.
As the question was being posed, DeSantis was quick to jump in and note that of the tens of thousands of theme park layoffs announced “mostly were in California”. After the reporter finished the question about unemployment benefits, DeSantis went on to say that “the bulk of [the layoffs] were because California will not let the theme parks operate”.
Of course, if you’ve been following the coverage of the layoffs on BlogMickey.com, you’ll know that the Governor’s statements are at odds with the facts. According to state documents filed in both California and Florida, the bulk of the layoffs experienced in Disney’s theme park division have come from Orlando, Florida. Here is the breakdown based on official government documents filed with the respective state entities:
- Walt Disney World (Orlando, FL): 18,015 layoffs
- Disneyland (Anaheim, CA): 8,466 layoffs
It’s worth noting that other news outlets from California have estimated up to 10,000 layoffs at Disneyland, but certainly not enough to overtake the 18,000+ layoffs we’ve seen in Florida.
Disney has put out an updated count of 32,000 total layoffs recently, but that is a company-wide figure, and not limited to the theme park division, according to an SEC filing made by Disney. As far as official statements from Disney, there are a total of 28,000 layoffs within the theme park division. In other words, the 18,000 Cast Members laid off in Orlando, FL represent a majority of the layoffs within the theme parks division of the company.
As to the question at hand about unemployment, DeSantis said that unemployment aid should come from the federal government because he believes that it was the federal policies put in place back in March that forced the theme parks to close. He noted that the theme parks closed of their own volition and not as a result of mandates from the State of Florida.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
Can you provide more context to either the question posed to DeSantis, or the statistics in question? You seem to only be considering Disney theme parks. What are the numbers for all theme parks across California? Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios Hollywood, Disneyland, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Sea World.