Netflix plans a layoff of around 1,000 employees. That is about 6% of its workforce. It is the biggest round of cuts in the company’s history.
Netflix began the layoffs on Wednesday. About 6% of its global staff is affected. The company told workers in an internal email. Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters sent the memo on Wednesday morning. The email was shared with several news outlets within hours.
The Wall Street Journal and Variety were among the first to report the memo. Netflix has not released a long public statement. Most of what is known comes from the staff email and people familiar with the plan.
Which teams are hit
Most of the cuts fall on the product, tech, legal and human ret behind the shows and the app that viewers see
Some content staff also lost their jobs. Film vice president Doug Belgrad is out. Carolina Garcia, a director of original series, is leaving after 10 years. Deadline also named film executive Sheroum Kim and several TV executives among those affected.
Netflix has not shared a full breakdown by team or country. Exact numbers may change as managers speak with staff.
What the memo said
The co-CEOs framed the move as a matter of focus. They wrote that Netflix must be disciplined about where it puts people and reemployees and investors
Also, they tried to calm investors. The memo said the business is strong and growing. It said Netflix is on track to meet its full-year forecast. The memo also acknowledged the effect on workers. It said company leaders would contact those affected.
A company still making money
These layoffs do not follow a collapse. They follow a record year. Netflix reported $45.2 billion in revenue for 2025, up 16% from the year before. Net income reached $11 billion, up 26%.
That is why the cuts stand out. In 2022, Netflix faced falling subscribers and a crashing stock. This time, the numbers are still strong. The worry is about the pace of growth, not about survival.
Co-CEO Ted Sarandos spoke at a Bloomberg event last month. He said Netflix posted double-digit revenue gains in every region in the second quarter. He also said the company wants to grow faster.
Pressure from rivals
The streaming market is crowded. Netflix faces tough competition for viewers from legacy media rivals and YouTube. YouTube has become a major force on living room TVs. It competes for the same hours that Netflix wants.
Older studios have also changed. They now run their own streaming services and fight for the same audience. Skydance recently completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. A larger rival could mean tougher competition for talent and content.
Sarandos said at a Bloomberg event that Netflix is not growing as fast as he wants. The company has also struggled to hold viewers past the first season of some shows. Season two of The Gentlemen was one of the latest examples.
The stock picture
Investors have been uneasy all year. Netflix shares were down about 25% for the year before the news. Other reports put the drop at different levels, depending on the date and the measure used.
The reaction on Wednesday was calm. Shares rose 0.7% that day. Wall Street often rewards cost cuts. Many investors see layoffs as a sign that a company is controlling expenses.
The cuts come a week before Netflix reports its next quarterly earnings. That report is due on October 20. Analysts will look closely at margins, viewing hours and the outlook for next year.
How this compares with 2022
The last big round came four years ago. In 2022, Netflix cut about 450 jobs in two rounds. It had lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade. The first round, in May, removed about 150 staff. The second round, in June, cut about 300.
The new layoff is more than double the 2022 total. It also affects a larger company. Netflix had about 16,000 full-time employees at the end of 2025. Smaller cuts have followed since 2022. Several dozen product staff left in February this year.
Some early reports had pointed to a smaller number. Puck News first said about 5% of staff would go. That implied roughly 800 to 850 jobs. The final figure came in higher.
- Netflix
