Netflix cuts roughly 1,000 jobs in product, tech, legal and HR a week before it reports earnings

Netflix is laying off around 1,000 employees, representing 6% of its workforce, in what Variety calls its biggest layoff to date.

"Our business is strong and growing, and we remain on track to deliver our full year forecast," Sarandos and Peters said in the memo.

As of the end of 2025, Netflix had about 16,000 full-time employees.

A Netflix spokesperson said the company did not have any comment beyond the memo from Sarandos and Peters.

Most of the layoffs will affect workers in Netflix's product, technology, legal and HR teams, co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters wrote in an email to employees on Wednesday.

Netflix stock fell more than 8% in after-hours trading following its July results.

In 2025 Netflix had $45.2 billion in revenue, up 16%.

The last major Netflix layoffs came in 2022, when it let go about 450 staffers after a net decline of 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of that year, its first such drop in more than a decade.

Netflix has made smaller cutbacks since 2022, including letting go several dozen members of its global product team earlier in 2026.

Netflix is scheduled to report third quarter 2026 earnings on Tuesday, Oct. 20, after market close.

For the second quarter, Netflix posted earnings in line with Wall Street forecasts but issued Q3 revenue guidance below analyst expectations, driving the stock price down.

Netflix's customer defection rate remains the lowest in the streaming industry at just over 2% in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal citing Antenna data.

Netflix reported in July that members watched more than 97 billion hours of content in the first half of 2026, up 2% year over year.

Netflix said it would reduce the frequency of its viewership disclosure reports, shifting from twice-yearly to annual beginning in 2027.

Disney and Amazon have both cut staff significantly in recent months, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The cuts come one week before Netflix is scheduled to report its next quarterly earnings.

In 2025 Netflix had net income of $11 billion, up 26%, and has posted double-digit growth in both revenue and profits in recent years.

The 1,000-job cut is 200 jobs, or 25%, more than the roughly 800 workers earlier reports implied.

The 1,000-job cut is about 2.2 times the roughly 450 jobs cut in 2022.

Netflix's 2025 revenue per year-end employee was about $2.83 million.

On the same 2025 revenue, revenue per employee after removing 1,000 jobs from 16,000 would be about $3.01 million.

Removing 1,000 of 16,000 employees raises revenue per employee on a fixed revenue base by about 6.7%.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the reductions come amid headwinds from decelerating growth and weakening viewer engagement.