Netflix will lay off up to 800 workers next week after its co-CEO admitted growth has fallen short amid tough streaming competition.
Breitbart News reported that the streaming giant is set to announce layoffs of about five percent of its workforce, with pink slips starting as soon as next week.
Reuters first flagged the cost-cutting move. Up to 800 of Netflix’s 16,000 employees are expected to go. It would mark the company’s largest workforce reduction since 2022.
That earlier round also hit hundreds of jobs during a growth downturn and a shrinking subscriber base. This time the pressure comes from slower expansion, rival streamers, and YouTube’s rising hold on online TV viewers.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos addressed the company’s pace early this month at Bloomberg’s 2026 Screentime event. He did not sugarcoat the shortfall.
Sarandos told the audience the company has work to do:
"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 bright line on content strategy. Netflix, he said, is staying out of the user-generated free-for-all that fuels much of YouTube’s appeal.
"We’re definitely... not in the UGC [user-created content] business. We’re in the professionally produced content business."
Those remarks came as the stock already faced pressure and as the company prepared the latest round of cuts. The admission lands against a backdrop of solid quarterly numbers that still failed to satisfy Wall Street or quiet competitive worries.
In July, Netflix posted second-quarter revenue of $12.56 billion. That was up 13 percent from 2025. Net income hit $3.4 billion. The operating margin stood at 33.4 percent.
Even so, the company lowered its full-year 2026 revenue forecast to a range of $51 billion to $51.4 billion. It still expects $3 billion in advertising sales for the year.
Investors punished the update. The stock fell more than 8 percent after the report landed. Profitability and revenue growth were not enough to offset the weaker outlook and the sense that engagement and expansion had cooled.
Management is pushing into gaming, live programming, and a more aggressive advertising push. Those bets require cash and focus. They also arrive while the core streaming business faces heavier headwinds from smaller services and from YouTube’s steady gains among online TV watchers.
Netflix built its brand on professionally produced shows and films. Sarandos repeated that identity at the Screentime event. Yet the same market that once rewarded endless content spending now rewards efficiency.
YouTube has been steadily increasing its share of online TV viewing. Other streamers keep splitting attention and wallets. The result is a familiar cycle: big hiring during the boom, then pink slips when growth slows and margins need protection.
The coming cuts of roughly five percent follow the 2022 reductions that also ran into the hundreds. Reuters described the new round as a direct cost-cutting step. No geographic breakdown or division list has been detailed in the reporting so far.
For employees, the timing is abrupt. Notices are expected to begin next week. For shareholders, the message is clearer: even a company posting double-digit revenue growth and multi-billion-dollar profits will shed staff when the growth rate disappoints its own leaders and the market.
Sarandos framed the challenge in plain terms. The company is “not growing as fast as I want us to.” That single assessment now sits beside a lowered full-year forecast, a sharp post-earnings stock drop, and a plan to remove up to 800 jobs.
Market discipline still reaches Hollywood’s biggest streamer. When growth lags and rivals take share, payrolls shrink, no matter how glossy the content catalog looks.
