Portland Animation Studio Laika Announces Mass Layoffs

“The studio does not know when business may return to some sort of normal.”

The star of Laika's "Missing Link."
By Shannon Gormley

Yet another Oregon institution has announced a major reduction in workforce: Laika Studios will lay off at least 50 of its employees starting Sept. 1.

The Hillsboro animation studio notified the Office of Workforce Investments of the mass layoff last Friday.

"While the company hopes this reduction is temporary and that it will be able to rehire its full workforce in the near future," the company wrote in the filing, "the studio does not know when business may return to some sort of normal."

Laika, which has continually gained acclaim for its inventive stop-motion movies since the 2009 hit Coraline, employs more than 300 people, most of whom have been working remotely since the pandemic shut down the state.

The news comes on the heels of Laika's 15th anniversary. In 2002, Nike founder Phil Knight bought Laika's predecessor, the trailblazing Will Vinton Studios, before it became Laika in 2005. The company is now run by Knight's son, Travis.

Nike itself laid off 500 employees from its Beaverton headquarters last month.

Laika's last movie, 2019's Missing Link, grossed $26 million worldwide and won an Oscar and a Golden Globe.

Related: Nike Will Lay Off 500 Workers at Its Beaverton World Headquarters.

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