Paramount attempts to stop the bleeding with another major layoff

Yes, when there’s trouble at the top it tends to hurt the people at the bottom. Per Variety, Paramount’s interim co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy, and Brian Robbins wrote in a memo to staff, “We will be reducing our domestic workforce by 3.5%, with the majority of impacted staff being notified today,” adding that the layoffs “may also result in some impacts to our workforce outside the U.S. over time.” The layoffs are supposedly the result of the “continued industry-wide linear declines and dynamic macro-economic environment,” though the co-CEOs did express gratitude to staff “for the impressive growth in streaming that our hits continue to drive.” The memo states, “As our company transforms, there is so much to be proud of. Our progress is clear, and the results are meaningful.” Nevertheless, “several hundred” Paramount employees are now out of a job. 

More or less quarterly layoffs are an industry-wide trend; despite seemingly having a successful year, Disney also just laid off several hundred employees. (Perhaps less successful, Warner Bros. Discovery laid off a bunch of people this month too.) What makes the Paramount layoff even more significant is that at the end of last year, the company eliminated 15 percent of its U.S. workforce, around 2,000 jobs, as a cost-cutting measure. Per Deadline, the company ended 2023 with 21,900 full- and part-time employees (plus 4,500 project-based staffers). By the end of 2024, Paramount Global had 18,600 employees worldwide, according to Variety. Should Paramount continue down this road, who’s going to be left to run the business? And if the merger doesn’t go through, will there even be a business to run?