Netflix is eliminating roughly 1,000 positions about 6% of its global workforce in a round of cuts first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, citing an internal memo sent by the company's co-CEOs to staff.
Co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos confirmed the reductions in the email, telling staff that the cuts would fall most heavily on the product, technology, legal and human resources teams. The company had approximately 16,000 full-time employees at the end of 2025.
In their memo, Peters and Sarandos said the company needed to be "disciplined about where we prioritise our people and resources" to deliver on its mission, while also stating that the business remains on track to meet its full-year forecast. Netflix declined to comment beyond the staff email.
The layoffs are the company's largest since 2022, when it cut roughly 450 positions across two rounds of redundancies following a dip in subscriber numbers. The current scale is more than double that, and comes ahead of Netflix's third-quarter earnings report scheduled for 20 October.
The cuts arrive as Netflix faces slowing viewer engagement, intensifying competition from platforms including YouTube and TikTok for users' attention, and pressure on its share price, which is down roughly 25% this year. The streaming giant also lost out to Paramount Skydance in a bidding contest for Warner Bros. Discovery's assets earlier in 2026.
Netflix has been attempting to diversify its revenue base through advertising, live events, gaming and children's programming, but the Wall Street Journal's reporting and comments from co-CEO Ted Sarandos at a Bloomberg conference last month where he said "we're not growing as fast as I want us to" indicate the company is now consolidating rather than expanding its headcount.
