Netflix cutting 1,000 jobs in reaction to engagement concerns, stock price slide

This year’s Netflix hit His & Hers

Netflix is set to cut around 1,000 jobs, the equivalent of about 6% of its workforce, as it adjusts its business amid concerns of slowing viewing engagement and a languishing share price.

Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters confirmed the lay-offs, which had been rumoured for a couple of weeks, in an email to staff on Wednesday.

Most of the cuts are being made across the product, legal, tech and human resources departments.

“Our mission – to entertain the world – is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritise our people and resources,” said the co-CEOs, adding that “decisions like these are never easy, and we don’t take them lightly.”

This is the largest round of job cuts that Netflix has implemented since 2022, when it made lay-offs in response to its first subscriber losses in more than a decade.

After its challenges in 2022, Netflix had a streak of successes, growing subscribers and moving into live programming. The growth and expansion into new areas pushed Netflix’s stock to a high of around US$132 per share in the summer of 2025.

Since then, the stock has fallen over 45%, triggered initially by its pursuit of Warner Bros Discovery and exacerbated by growing concerns about viewer engagement, which grew by 2% in the first half of 2026 compared with the previous year.

This month, during Bloomberg’s Screentime conference, Sarandos conceded the streamer was “not growing as fast as I want us to.”

At the beginning of 2025, it ceased reporting subscriber numbers – another move that was perceived as a sign of slowing growth. At the beginning of this year, Netflix disclosed it had 325 million paying members.

Sarandos and Peters insisted Netflix’s business is “strong and growing” and that it remains on course to hit financial targets for the year.

Some of its biggest shows of the year include His & Hers, the latest season of Bridgerton, Harlan Coben’s I Will Find You and the recently released creature feature Below, which currently sits at the top of its global TV chart.

They added that they will continue to invest “aggressively” to continue growing. The company has also repeatedly said its spending across original and licensed programming will hit US$20bn in 2026 – its biggest-ever outlay for content.

“We’ll continue to invest aggressively in high-impact areas to improve our service and further drive growth and innovation. Doing that means making focused choices across the business so we can keep delivering for our members, partners, employees and investors,” added Peters and Sarandos in a statement.