Netflix is planning a major round of lay off that could be announced as early as next week. The restructuring would affect about 5% of staff. Netflix has not confirmed the plan.
Several media reports give a percentage and a rough timeline. They do not give a final job count. They also do not say which departments would be hit hardest. That is the biggest open question.
How many jobs are at stake
Netflix said it had about 16,000 full-time employees at the end of 2025. A 5% cut would remove around 800 jobs.
About 68% of Netflix workers, roughly 10,900 people, were in the US and Canada as of December. The report does not say how the cuts would be split by region.
Netflix reports third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, Oct. 20, after the market closes. The earnings date is the next fixed event for investors. Any layoff announcement could come before it or around it. Netflix has not said which.
What Netflix leaders have said
Co-CEO Ted Sarandos spoke last month at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles. He said the company is growing. He noted that Netflix posted double-digit revenue gains in every geographic region in the second quarter. He also said the company wants to grow faster.
Variety notes that engagement rose 2% year over year in the first half of 2026. The numbers show growth. They also show a company that wants more of it.
Smaller cuts earlier this year
This would not be the first reduction of 2026. Netflix laid off dozens of people from its product team. No senior product executives were let go. Netflix declined to comment at that time too.
Elizabeth Stone took over the product team after former product chief Eunice Kim left in September.
A layoff tracker also lists a filing from August. The tracker says Netflix filed a California WARN notice covering 59 roles in Los Angeles. It lists the date as Aug. 13, 2026, and gives no public reason. That is a third-party tracker, not a Netflix statement.
The business behind the cuts
Netflix is pushing into new areas. The company is expanding beyond traditional subscription streaming into live programming, video games and ad-supported services. It also faces increasing competition for viewers.
Netflix has entered an $83 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. That deal is among the largest in the company’s history.
Its 2026 product plans include live voting, playing games on TV from a phone, mood-based recommendations and vertical video on mobile. Live events have grown too, with Alex Honnold’s free climb of Taipei 101 as a recent example.
Netflix also began testing AI tools for advertisers in 2025. Those tools build custom ads from the company’s own IP.
Layoffs are also spreading across the wider entertainment industry. Netflix would join that group if the cuts are confirmed.
What happened in 2022
Netflix has done this before. In the first quarter of 2022, it reported its first subscriber loss since October 2011. The drop was 200,000 subscribers, and the stock fell 23%.
In May 2022, Netflix cut around 150 employees. That was less than 2% of about 11,000 staffers, and most were in the U.S. The company said slowing revenue growth meant it had to slow cost growth.
A second round followed weeks later, with roughly 300 staffers let go. Those cuts spanned multiple business functions, with most jobs lost in the U.S. Together, the 2022 reductions came to about 450 positions.
Netflix shares traded above $600 in January 2022. They opened near $180 on the day of the second round.
The company lost 970,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2022. It then cut about 30 jobs in its animation department.
If confirmed, the new cuts would be among Netflix’s largest since 2022.
- Netflix
