Netflix said Wednesday it will eliminate roughly 1,000 jobs — about 6% of its workforce — in its largest-ever round of layoffs. Product, technology, legal and human-resources teams will bear most of the cuts, affecting a company with about 16,000 employees at the end of 2025.¹

The scale is striking because Netflix is not retrenching after a collapse. Revenue grew 16% in 2025, and the company says it remains on track for 13% to 14% growth this year.² In their memo, co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters framed the move as a choice about focus: “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.”³

That language echoes Netflix’s last significant cuts in 2022, but the circumstances have changed. Then, the streamer had reported its first subscriber decline in more than a decade and cut about 450 jobs across two rounds. It subsequently rebuilt momentum through a cheaper ad-supported plan and a crackdown on password sharing.³

Now the pressure is less about survival than speed. Netflix posted nearly $25 billion in first-half 2026 revenue, up 15% year on year, yet Sarandos recently conceded: “Overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to.”³ Viewing time has stagnated, while YouTube remains a major rival and a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery could intensify the fight for attention.²

Netflix says it will keep investing “aggressively” in high-impact areas, arguing that the cuts will support innovation and returns rather than signal weakness.¹ But with its shares down more than 20% in 2026, the message to staff is blunt: solid growth no longer buys immunity from a demand for more.¹