Netflix cuts about 1,000 jobs in biggest layoffs since 2022

Netflix ↗ 0.16% is cutting about 6% of its workforce, or roughly 1,000 jobs worldwide, The Wall Street Journal News Corp ↘ 0.40% reported Wednesday. It is the company's largest round of layoffs since 2022. Co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos told staff in a memo Wednesday morning that most of the cuts would fall on the product, technology, legal and human resources departments.wsj

The layoffs are larger than earlier reports suggested. They come as Netflix deals with slowing growth and weaker viewer engagement, and less than a week before it reports third-quarter results on Oct. 20.elcomercio+1

Bigger than first reported

Puck News first reported on Oct. 9 that Netflix was planning to cut about 5% of its staff, according to the Spanish-language newspaper El Comercio and the news aggregator Ground News. Depending on which headcount figure is used, that would have meant about 800 to 850 jobs. Netflix ended 2025 with about 16,000 full-time employees, while some reports used an estimate of about 17,000. Before Wednesday, Netflix had not confirmed any figure or said which teams would be affected.ground+1

Netflix's last major layoffs came in 2022, when it cut hundreds of jobs as growth slowed and it lost subscribers. Since then it has expanded into advertising, live programming and gaming, while YouTube Alphabet Inc. ↘ 1.68% has taken a growing share of viewing time and ad spending.ground

Analysts turn cautious

On Tuesday, Huber Research cut its rating on Netflix two notches, from Overweight to Underweight, and lowered its 12-month price target to \$70 from \$85, Investing.com reported. Analyst Craig Huber cited the layoff reports as one of six reasons. He noted that Netflix's last big cuts came in the second quarter of 2022, after two straight quarters of subscriber losses.finance.yahoo

Huber also pointed to "ongoing fears that engagement on Netflix's platform is stalling out." Total global viewing hours rose 2% to 97 billion in the first half of 2026, which he estimates is a decline of about 5% per subscriber. He said Netflix's July decision to publish engagement reports once a year instead of twice was a bad sign. He also expects the company to hold back on U.S. price increases after raising prices at the start of both 2025 and 2026. And he said it still bothers him that Netflix tried to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming businesses about 10 months ago.finance.yahoo

KeyBank analysts said Netflix's headcount rose from 8,600 in 2019 to 16,000 in 2025, according to Yahoo Finance. They want the company to cut costs further, possibly with more layoffs, and to give clearer numbers on its content spending plans. Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi noted the stock is down about 25% from a year ago and said the earnings call "can't be a mailed in earnings call for Netflix management".finance.yahoo