Cirque du Soleil to cut 400 jobs

PanARMENIAN.Net - Cirque du Soleil has confirmed it will cut around 400 jobs this year as part of a restructuring to make the company as “profitable as possible,” The Stage reported.

Following a press conference in Montreal – where its headquarters are based – a spokesman for the company told The Stage that the job losses, which will account for around 7% of its workforce, were due to the organisation “adjusting” to changes in the “worldwide economic situation”.

Cirque du Soleil announced last year that it would be closing Iris, its permanent show in Los Angeles, due to poor ticket sales.

In 2011 it also closed Zed, its permanent production in Tokyo, citing the economic impact from the earthquake and tsunami earlier that year.

The spokesman said Cirque do Soleil was adjusting to this, plus the closure of its touring show Saltimbanco in 2012, which ran for more than 20 years.

The job losses will come into effect later this year but the spokesman could not confirm how many performers or technical staff that would include.

Cirque du Soleil employs around 6,000 people worldwide, with more than 150 of those performing or working backstage in the touring show Kooza, which is running in London until February.

Its permanent London-based office employs six members of staff.