FLORIDA The Walt Disney Co. accounts for about 2.5% of Florida’s cumulative gross domestic product and is directly or indirectly responsible for more than one of every 50 jobs in the state, according to a study commissioned by the company.
Walt Disney World and its related businesses in Florida generate an estimated US$18.2 billion a year in economic activity, according to a report prepared by Arduin, Laffer & Moore, a Republican consulting firm, which examined data from Disney’s 2009 fiscal year.
Disney released a two-page summary of its findings but declined to release the full report because it includes proprietary financial information, Orlando Sentinel reports.
The average Disney worker in Florida—there are more than 59,000 of them—took in an average salary of US$30,500 in 2009, which translates to about US$1.8 billion in total annual compensation.
Including direct purchasing by the company and third-party businesses operating on Disney property, the company’s economic impact is US$6.3 billion. When researchers used computer models to include additional, “indirect and induced” impacts from Disney’s operations, the total economic effect swelled to US$18.2 billion and approximately 161,000 jobs.