Netflix Cuts About 6% of Staff, Roughly 1,000 Jobs, in Its Biggest Layoffs Since 2022

Netflix told employees on Wednesday that it is cutting roughly 6% of its workforce, about 1,000 jobs, marking the company's largest round of layoffs since 2022, according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC and separately reported by The Globe and Mail, citing Reuters, which said it reviewed the same memo. The Wall Street Journal first reported on Wednesday's memo, according to The Globe and Mail.

What the memo says

The cuts fall mainly on Netflix's product, technology, legal and human-resources teams, co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters wrote in the email sent to employees on Wednesday, according to CNBC and The Globe and Mail. Neither outlet's excerpts of the memo specified which countries or offices would be affected.

In the memo, the co-CEOs framed the reductions as a matter of focus rather than financial distress: "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," they wrote, according to CNBC. They also reaffirmed the company's existing outlook without issuing new figures: "Our business is strong and growing, and we remain on track to deliver our full year forecast," the memo said, as reported by both CNBC and The Globe and Mail. The co-CEOs added that Netflix would "continue to invest aggressively in high impact areas to improve our service and further drive growth and innovation," per CNBC's reporting.

Netflix declined to comment beyond the memo, CNBC reported, and no severance cost or restructuring charge was disclosed in the reporting reviewed.

Scale of the cuts and headcount

The company had about 16,000 employees at the end of last year, according to data cited by The Globe and Mail, putting this week's roughly 1,000 job cuts at about 6% of that base. That dwarfs Netflix's prior major reduction in 2022, when it cut about 450 jobs across two rounds after posting its first subscriber loss in more than a decade, The Globe and Mail reported.

Market reaction

Netflix shares, down about 25% so far this year, rose 0.7% on Wednesday after the layoff news, Reuters reported via The Globe and Mail. A market snapshot embedded in that same report, timestamped October 14, showed NFLX-Q down 0.89% at that moment, compared with a 2.84% gain for Paramount Skydance (PSKY-Q) in the same snapshot — a gap of 3.73 percentage points by our calculation (-0.89 minus 2.84). The difference between the reported 0.7% gain and the -0.89% snapshot appears to reflect different points in the trading day rather than a contradiction; as interpretation, readers should treat the snapshot as a single intraday observation rather than a closing level.

Earnings on deck

Netflix is scheduled to report quarterly results on October 20, just days after the layoff announcement, CNBC reported. Commentary carried by Yahoo Finance framed the cuts as a step investors had been seeking: "This is the first step for Netflix in getting its cost base under control as its top line is under pressure," according to that commentary. The same Yahoo Finance segment suggested the earnings call could bring further scrutiny on capital returns, saying "the street wants to hear I think a little bit about a potential dividend from Netflix. It would be a first for this company, but a lot of media companies pay one out."

Growth concerns and industry backdrop

The job cuts follow Sarandos telling attendees at the Bloomberg Screentime conference weeks earlier that the company was "not growing as fast as I want," according to CNBC's reporting. Engagement, meaning the amount of time users spend on the platform, has become a focal point for investors as free, user-generated platforms such as YouTube and TikTok draw viewers with a cost advantage over Netflix, The Globe and Mail reported, with CNBC separately noting that Netflix's viewing time has stagnated even as the company continues to post solid profits and remains the largest streaming player.

eMarketer senior analyst Ross Benes told The Globe and Mail that Netflix's reliance on subscriptions may be approaching its limits: "They haven't been able to find like another line of major revenue," he said, adding that the company remains dependent on a subscription business that could be nearing a ceiling.

The layoffs also follow a setback in dealmaking. A failed pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming and studio assets earlier this year deepened doubts about Netflix's strategy, The Globe and Mail reported. Paramount completed its US$110-billion Warner Bros. acquisition earlier this month to form Skydance, according to that report, with CNBC noting the combined company plans to integrate the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming platforms. Netflix is not alone among media companies trimming headcount: Disney said last month it would lay off around 300 employees, mostly in human resources and technology roles, CNBC reported.

Bottom Line

Netflix's largest layoff round since 2022 lands just days before its next earnings report, giving investors a near-term test of whether cost discipline can offset slowing growth and engagement concerns flagged by analysts. The company's own memo reaffirmed its full-year forecast in general terms rather than issuing new numeric targets, leaving the scale of any financial benefit, including severance costs, for Netflix to address when it reports results on October 20.