Netflix’s latest retrenchment lands in strikingly different circumstances from its last major cuts. In 2022, the streamer shed roughly 450 jobs after reporting its first subscriber losses in more than a decade, as account sharing and fiercer competition slowed revenue growth.¹

It then rebuilt its momentum with a cheaper advertising tier and a crackdown on password sharing. By the first half of 2026, revenue had reached nearly $25 billion, up 15% year on year, and Netflix employed about 16,000 people.¹ Yet the recovery did not settle the company’s growth problem. Shares had fallen 22% this year and 42% over the previous 12 months, while Netflix also lost out in the bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery.¹

That pressure has increasingly shaped the company’s decisions. Netflix replaced its chief content officer in an effort to arrest the declining share price,² and Ted Sarandos told an industry conference last month: “Overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster.”³

On Wednesday, Netflix said it would eliminate roughly 1,000 positions — about 6% of its workforce — primarily in product, technology, legal and human-resources teams.⁴ Co-CEOs Sarandos and Greg Peters insisted the business remains “strong and growing” and on track for its full-year forecast. But they framed the cuts as an unavoidable choice: “delivering on [our mission] requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources.”⁴

The contrast is the story. Netflix says it is pruning to invest “aggressively” in high-impact growth areas; workers are paying the price of a company seeking faster expansion even while revenue rose 16% in 2025 and it projected 13% to 14% growth this year.⁴