Pemo TheodoreThe weak jobs report didn’t take into account a new wave of layoffs and furloughs that are threatening to grind the economic recovery to a halt. Disney said it will lay off 28,000 workers in its theme parks division who have been furloughed since the spring. Two-thirds of those positions are part-time. Disney blamed the pandemic — as well as California restrictions that have kept Disneyland closed — for the cuts, one of the biggest reductions in a single company’s headcount since the lockdowns started. Between American and United Airlines, another 30,000-plus employees are being furloughed as federal employment protections ran out on Oct. 1. The airlines hinted that they could recall at least some of those employees if lawmakers reach a deal to bail out the industry. The insurance giant Allstate is cutting 3,800 heads, the textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is laying off 22 percent of its workforce, and a major hotel trade group is warning that the industry is facing imminent collapse, with as many as two-thirds of all hotels likely to close within six months if they don’t receive federal aid. Read more via Cheddar.com
