Disneyland is getting closer to reaching pre-pandemic staffing levels, hiring hundreds more employees each week and offering $1,500 bonuses for the most difficult-to-fill jobs as the Anaheim theme park continues a phased reopening following an extended pandemic closure.

The Disneyland resort has 30,000 cast members currently working with a job fair planned for later this week, according to Disneyland officials.

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That’s 5,000 more Disneyland cast members since October, 11,000 more employees than were on the payroll in August, 15,000 more than June and 20,000 more than March when the theme park resort first began emerging from a yearlong coronavirus closure. But Disneyland still has 2,000 fewer employees than the 32,000 on staff prior to the pandemic — when the Disney resort was the largest employer in Orange County.

Disneyland has brought back nearly 95% of its pre-pandemic workforce — with more returning to work each week as the phased reopening of the parks continues.

Disneyland is getting “really close” to reaching the resort’s pre-pandemic staffing level of 32,000 employees, Disneyland Resort President Ken Potrock said.

“We are hiring every week,” Potrock said during an interview. “We’re not done yet. We’re aggressively looking for more and more people.”

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An in-person job fair at the Disneyland Hotel on Friday, Feb. 25 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. will offer full-time and part-time positions in the food and beverage, hotel and security divisions.

Disneyland is offering $1,000 hiring bonuses for custodial, food prep and hotel maid positions. Massage therapists, nail technicians and hairstylists at the new Tenaya Stone Spa in Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel command $1,500 bonuses.

Potrock attended a recent job fair at the Disneyland Hotel where hundreds of candidates were applying for custodial, culinary and operations positions.

“The quality of the candidates was great,” Potrock said. “Some of it was people getting back into the workforce. Some of it was people shifting from other opportunities. Some of it was getting back to a level of new normal.”

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Disneyland laid off or furloughed thousands of cast members during the COVID-19 pandemic as state officials refused to allow California theme parks to reopen for more than a year.

Disneyland and Disney California Adventure reopened on April 30 after a 412-day COVID-19 closure that resulted in job losses and work interruptions for thousands of cast members — Disney parlance for employees.

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Before the layoffs and furloughs, Disney employed more than 100,000 at its U.S. theme parks — 32,000 at Disneyland and 77,000 at Disney World. Disney laid off 28,000 employees and furloughed 37,000 in fall 2020. By the end of 2020, the Disneyland resort had laid off more than 11,500 employees and furloughed thousands more.

Amid the hiring surge, Disneyland union members accepted a new three-year contract in December that included a 19% pay hike of $3 per hour over three years — raising starting pay to $18.50 an hour by 2023.