Netflix plans to cut about 1,000 jobs, or roughly 6% of its global workforce, in its largest round of layoffs in four years. In an Oct. 14 memo to employees, co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters announced that job cuts will primarily affect the company’s product, technology, legal, and human resources teams.
The streaming company said it was making organizational changes to focus resources on the areas it considers most important for future growth. Netflix had approximately 16,000 full-time employees worldwide at the end of 2025, according to its annual report filed with US regulators.
“Our mission — to entertain the world — is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources,”“Our mission — to entertain the world — is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources,” Sarandos and Peters wrote in the memo.
The executives said Netflix’s business remained strong and that the company was on track to meet its full-year financial forecast. Netflix declined to comment beyond the memo.
Which teams will be affected?
Netflix identified product, technology, legal, and human resources as the hardest-hit areas. However, the company has not revealed how many positions it will eliminate per department or country.
The cuts are the company’s largest workforce reduction since 2022, when Netflix eliminated about 450 jobs after reporting its first quarterly subscriber loss in more than a decade. They follow years of expansion beyond subscription streaming into advertising, gaming and live programming.
Netflix’s annual report recorded approximately 10,900 employees in the United States and Canada at the end of 2025, or 68% of its full-time workforce. Another 2,500 worked in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 1,900 in Asia-Pacific and 700 in Latin America. Those figures do not indicate how the new cuts will be distributed.
Why is Netflix cutting jobs now?
The layoffs come as Netflix tries to maintain growth in a crowded entertainment market. Streaming rivals such as Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ compete for subscription revenue, while YouTube, TikTok, and other social platforms compete for viewers’ time.
Netflix remains profitable, but recent results have exposed a gap between its performance and investor expectations. Despite second-quarter revenue rising 13% year-over-year to US$12.56 billion and profit climbing 9% to US$3.4 billion, the company’s third-quarter revenue outlook missed Wall Street expectations.
The company has also faced pressure to make its service more engaging as audiences divide their time among streaming platforms, social media and other forms of entertainment. Netflix has expanded its advertising business and experimented with live events, video podcasts and gaming.
In 2026, Netflix abandoned its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming businesses after Paramount Skydance emerged as the winning bidder. The assets included Warner Bros. studios and HBO. The failed deal marked a major strategic shift for a company that had considered a large acquisition to expand its content and entertainment businesses.
The layoffs do not, by themselves, establish that any single initiative or transaction caused the job cuts. Netflix’s executives have framed the decision as a choice about how to allocate staff and resources.
What does Netflix say about its outlook?
Despite the reductions, Sarandos and Peters told employees the company remained on track to meet its 2026 financial forecast. They said Netflix would continue investing in areas that could improve the service and support growth.
The company reported US$45.2 billion in revenue for 2025, up 16% from the previous year. Its business now includes subscription plans with and without advertising, alongside investments in games and live programming. Those initiatives create additional ways to attract viewers and generate revenue, but they also require Netflix to decide which projects and teams receive resources.
Netflix shares have fallen sharply over the past year amid concerns about growth and viewer engagement, although executives continue to describe the business as strong.
The company is scheduled to report third-quarter results on Oct. 20, less than a week after announcing the layoffs. The report will provide the next public update on revenue, profitability, and financial outlook, and may offer more detail on where Netflix plans to direct investment.
Netflix has not disclosed when or whether further organizational changes will follow. It said managers will contact affected employees and provide support during the transition.