Netflix to cut about 6% of worldwide staff

Netflix is eliminating about 6% of its employee roster, or roughly 1,000 jobs, in a round of layoffs announced internally Wednesday, according to a source with knowledge of the matter and a company email seen by NBC News.

“Our mission — to entertain the world — is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources,” Netflix co-chief executives Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos said in the email to staff members Wednesday.

The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The source with knowledge of the matter confirmed the newspaper’s reporting was accurate.

Netflix remains one of the titans of streaming, but it has struggled to boost user engagement on the platform. The service’s users watched more than 97 billion hours of content in the first half of 2026, an increase of 2% year over year, according to the company’s most recent quarterly earnings report.

“Overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster,” Sarandos said at Bloomberg’s annual media conference late last month.

Netflix is expected to report its third-quarter financial results Tuesday.

The majority of the job cuts will be concentrated in Netflix’s product, technology, legal and human resources teams.

Peters and Sarandos said the streaming firm will “continue to invest aggressively in high impact areas” while also “making focused choices across the business so we can keep delivering for our members, partners, employees and investors.”

In recent months, Netflix has looked for ways to boost subscriber engagement, including adding live sports programming and video podcasts licensed from third-party companies such as Bill Simmons’ The Ringer.

Netflix’s layoffs come as other major Hollywood studios look to reduce costs and streamline operations.

The Walt Disney Co. has cut hundreds of jobs this year under new CEO Josh D’Amaro, according to a source familiar with the matter. David Ellison’s Skydance is widely expected to shrink its workforce across Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.