BUSINESS | MEDIA

The streamer is reportedly preparing its largest workforce reduction since 2022 as investors scrutinize slowing engagement and the company pushes for faster growth.

BY SOCIAL STORYTELLERS COLLECTIVE NEWS DESK

Netflix is reportedly preparing to eliminate about 5% of its workforce, a reduction that could affect roughly 800 employees even as the streaming company continues to grow revenue. Puck first reported that Netflix is planning a restructuring affecting about 5% of employees and could announce the cuts as early as next week. Netflix declined to comment on the report. The company employed approximately 16,000 full-time workers at the end of 2025, according to its regulatory disclosures, meaning a reduction of that size would represent its largest major round of layoffs since 2022.

The potential cuts arrive at an unusual point in Netflix’s trajectory. This is not the Netflix of 2022, when the company was losing subscribers and confronting questions about whether the streaming boom had peaked. Netflix reported $12.56 billion in second-quarter revenue, up 13% from a year earlier, alongside $3.4 billion in net income and a 33.4% operating margin. Yet investors have increasingly focused on a different metric: how much more time subscribers are actually spending with the service. Netflix reported that global viewing increased only about 2% during the first half of 2026, with subscribers watching roughly 97 billion hours.

That tension has become more visible in Netflix’s own messaging. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos acknowledged at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference that the company is “not growing as fast as I want us to” and said Netflix is working to accelerate that growth. Netflix shares have also been under pressure. Bloomberg reported the stock was down roughly 24% for the year by the beginning of October, while other measures show an even steeper decline from previous highs. The concern is less about whether Netflix remains profitable than whether its current level of spending can continue producing the growth investors have come to expect.

Netflix has been trying to widen the number of ways it can create that growth. The company has pushed further into advertising, live programming, gaming and theatrical releases while continuing to spend heavily on scripted television and movies. Sarandos said about 5% of Netflix’s roughly $20 billion content budget is now going toward live programming. The company is also competing in an entertainment market where YouTube commands a growing share of viewing time and traditional media companies are consolidating around fewer platforms.

The reported layoffs suggest that expansion does not necessarily translate into a larger organization. The Los Angeles Times reported that the cuts could reach about 800 employees and may include members of Netflix’s creative organization, citing people familiar with the plans. Netflix has not disclosed which divisions would be affected, and until the company announces a restructuring, the precise scope remains unconfirmed. Its last major reduction came in 2022, when hundreds of employees were eliminated after Netflix recorded its first subscriber decline in more than a decade.

That makes the potential 2026 cuts different from the earlier retrenchment. Netflix is not confronting a collapsing business. It is confronting the harder problem of maintaining exceptional growth after becoming the dominant global subscription streamer. Revenue can continue rising while investors question engagement. Profit margins can remain strong while management decides the organization needs fewer people. Growth companies eventually reach a point where simply getting bigger is no longer enough; they are expected to produce more from the scale they already have.

For workers across media and technology, that is becoming a familiar pattern. Layoffs are increasingly occurring not only at companies in financial distress but at profitable businesses attempting to protect margins, restructure around new priorities or convince investors they can operate more efficiently. If Netflix proceeds with a reduction of roughly 5%, the story will not simply be that another media company cut jobs. It will be that even one of streaming’s strongest businesses is deciding that solid growth is no longer sufficient when the market expects acceleration.