Walt Disney and Shell to cut thousands of jobs amid Covid-19 fallout   

Tens of thousands of job cuts announced by blue-chip companies in the last 24 hours are a warning sign for the world’s recovery. 

The entrance to the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida. The global entertainment organization announced it will cut 28,000 workers from its US resort business. Picture: AP Photo/John Raoux, File

In one of the biggest layoff announcements since the pandemic caused widespread economic shutdowns, Walt Disney said it’s slashing 28,000 workers in its slumping US resort business.

The fallout isn’t contained to America. Shell will cut as many as 9,000 jobs as crude’s crash forces billions of dollars in cost savings, while German auto-parts supplier Continental's board approved a restructuring plan that will cut or shift 30,000 jobs worldwide.

Announcements like these point to further challenges in a rebound that’s already slowed after an initial bounce back in May and June.

 In the US, Friday’s jobs report — the last before the November presidential election — is expected to reveal that employers added a half-million fewer workers in September than in August.

At Shell, 7,000 to 9,000 job losses are expected by the end of 2022 — as much as 11% of the workforce. The move reflects the challenge facing Big Oil as the virus pandemic persists. 

With the pandemic still raging many key measures in the world’s largest economy look set to remain weak for some time. While the first wave of job cuts hit service workers the hardest — in industries such as restaurants and entertainment — economists see other higher-paid positions at increasing risk of layoffs as the recovery grinds slowly forward.

Particularly hard-hit are also companies reliant on travel and tourism, including Disney. In the US, there are signs, however, that the labour market is gradually improving in certain areas as demand rises from the depths of the pandemic.