Netflix plans to cut up to 800 jobs, roughly five percent of staff, after its co-CEO admitted growth is lagging and competition is intensifying.
The streaming company is preparing a cost-cutting move that would trim about five percent of its workforce, with pink slips expected to start as soon as next week, Reuters reported. As many as 800 of Netflix’s 16,000 employees could be let go in the largest round of cuts at the company since 2022.
Breitbart News reported the planned reduction against a backdrop of slower growth, a lowered revenue outlook, and rising pressure from other streamers and YouTube.
Netflix has not been framed in the reporting as a firm in free fall on paper. It still posts large profits. The issue is pace. Leadership wants faster expansion, and the market has already punished a softer forecast.
Early this month, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos addressed the company’s trajectory after the stock took a hit. Speaking at Bloomberg’s 2026 Screentime event, he tied the problem to growth speed, not a pivot away from polished programming.
Sarandos said:
"Overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster,"
He also drew a hard line on what Netflix is, and is not, trying to become as free, creator-led video keeps pulling attention online.
Sarandos told the audience:
"We’re definitely... not in the UGC business,"
He added:
"We’re in the professionally produced content business."
That stance matters because YouTube has been steadily increasing its share of online TV watchers. Netflix is answering with more spend and format experiments, not a turn into clip culture. Layoffs now land as a payroll reset while the company still chases scale the old-fashioned way: licensed and original shows, live events, ads, and games.
In July, Netflix reported second-quarter revenue of $12.56 billion, up 13 percent from 2025. Net income reached $3.4 billion. The operating margin sat at 33.4 percent.
Those numbers did not stop management from cutting the full-year 2026 revenue forecast to a range of $51 billion to $51.4 billion. The company still expects about $3 billion in advertising sales for the year. After the report, the stock fell more than 8 percent.
Investors heard growth and margin strength in the quarter. They also heard a narrower runway for the year. The planned five percent workforce cut follows that sequence: solid recent results, a softer outlook, a market slap, then a cost move aimed at payroll.
The reported layoffs are cast as a response to growing competition across streaming and online video. Netflix has been working to expand into gaming, live programming, and a more concerted advertising push while other platforms fight for the same hours of attention.
That is a different problem than the one Netflix faced in 2022, when it laid off hundreds during a downturn in growth and a shrinking subscriber base. The new round would be the largest since then. The company is larger now, with about 16,000 employees, and the cuts are described in percentage terms rather than as an emergency purge.
Even so, the pattern is familiar. When subscriber momentum cools and guidance slips, Hollywood’s biggest streamer reaches for headcount. Pink slips become the quickest lever after years of buildup in content and corporate ranks.
Open questions remain. Reporting has not detailed which teams, regions, or roles would take the hit. It has not supplied an absolute calendar date beyond “as soon as next week” for the start of notices. And the layoff plan is presented as reported planning rather than a finished, company-wide confirmation package with a full internal memo attached.
What is clear is the order of events already on the record. Netflix posted strong second-quarter revenue and profit, cut its full-year 2026 sales target, watched the stock drop more than 8 percent, heard its co-CEO say growth is too slow, and is now described as preparing to shed up to 800 jobs.
Sarandos’s own words put the motive in plain sight. The company wants faster growth. It is staying in professionally produced entertainment. It is spending to branch into ads, live shows, and gaming. And it is ready to shrink the payroll to match a tougher fight for viewers.
When growth misses the target Wall Street and management both set, no brand premium spares the headcount, market discipline still shows up in the pink slips.
