It's not a very merry Christmas season for one of the world's biggest toy makers: Hasbro told employees Monday that it would be laying off almost one-fifth of its workforce over the next year and a half to two years. Some had already been notified their positions would be cut, but the majority will be notified over the next six months, the company said. The Wall Street Journal saw the memo that was sent to workers and first reported the news. Hasbro, which already held layoffs earlier in the year, cited the ongoing slump in toy sales, which persisted even into the holiday shopping season and is expected to continue into 2024.
The company said the layoffs, which will affect about 1,100 employees, are a "last resort," the Guardian reports. Eight hundred workers were let go during this year's earlier round of layoffs. Since the "historic, pandemic-driven highs" toy sales hit amid COVID lockdowns, sales have been down across the industry; last month, overall toy sales were down 10% from the year prior. Shares are down 20% this year for Hasbro, maker of such brands as Transformers, Monopoly, and Dungeons & Dragons, while Mattel, bolstered by the Barbie movie's success, is not doing quite as poorly: It expects sales to be flat this year rather than experiencing a decline. (More Hasbro stories.)
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