Netflix Cuts 1,000 Jobs While Saying Business Is Strong. A Thousand Households Feel It.
Netflix is laying off about 6% of its workforce, roughly 1,000 jobs, even as its co-CEOs say the business is strong. Here is why, and what it means.
Netflix, the biggest name in streaming, is cutting about 6% of its workforce, roughly 1,000 jobs, in what The Associated Press called the biggest round of cuts the company has made in years.
Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters announced the cuts Wednesday in a memo to employees. The product, technology, legal and human resources teams will be hit hardest, CNBC reported. Netflix said it had no comment beyond the memo.
"Our business is strong and growing"
The memo did not plead hard times. "Our business is strong and growing, and we remain on track to deliver our full year forecast," Sarandos and Peters wrote. "We'll continue to invest aggressively in high impact areas to improve our service and further drive growth and innovation." Doing that, they said, "means making focused choices across the business."
"Decisions like these are never easy, and we don't take them lightly," they added, according to the AP, which obtained the memo.
The numbers back up the claim that the company is making money. In its second quarter, Netflix earned $3.4 billion on revenue of $12.56 billion, up 9% and 13% from a year earlier, the AP reported. At the end of 2025, regulatory filings showed about 16,000 full-time employees worldwide. Netflix reports third-quarter earnings Oct. 20, CNBC reported, and the AP noted that its forecast for the quarter fell below Wall Street's expectations.
Why a profitable company is cutting
CNBC described a "paradox." Netflix still posts solid profits and remains the largest streaming service, but viewing time has stagnated. Much of its recent subscriber growth has come from its crackdown on password sharing and its cheaper ad-supported tier, not from new hits. CNBC noted the company has lacked water-cooler shows like "Stranger Things" and "Squid Game" that once drove growth. Just weeks ago, Sarandos told a Bloomberg conference the company was "not growing as fast as I want."
Competition is getting tougher. Netflix holds about 19% of the streaming market, according to JustWatch data cited by the AP, with Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ close behind. CNBC called YouTube Netflix's biggest threat. And Skydance now owns both Paramount+ and HBO Max after Paramount's $81 billion buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery closed last week. The combined company plans to merge its streaming products "into a single service over time." Netflix had agreed late last year to buy Warner's studio and streaming business but walked away in February, the AP reported.
Netflix is not alone. Disney said last month it would lay off about 300 employees, mostly in human resources and technology, according to CNBC.
A thousand households
It is easy to read a layoff story as a stock story. Wall Street will judge whether the cuts were smart when the earnings come out next week. But a thousand jobs means a thousand households. Some of those workers have mortgages, children in school and parents to care for. Some found out this week that the job they planned around is gone, while the company told the world it is doing fine.
That is not a reason to call Netflix wicked. Companies have to make choices, and keeping people on payroll with no work for them is not a kindness that lasts. The memo, published in full by TooMuchTV, said the company's "top priority today is to support those who are leaving Netflix." Good. It should be measured by how it keeps that promise.
Scripture sets a high bar for how employers treat workers. "The labourer is worthy of his reward" (1 Timothy 5:18). James warns against withholding the wages of those who work (James 5:4). Christians running businesses, big or small, should handle hard decisions with honesty, fair severance and as much notice as they can give. Christians who lose work should remember their worth was never set by an org chart. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee" (Psalm 55:22).
What families should watch
There is a lesson here for viewers too. Streaming companies are fighting for every hour of attention in your home, and the pressure to grow will shape what they make and how hard they push it. Netflix is behind some projects Christian families care about, including Greta Gerwig's Narnia film, which Dock Line wrote about this week: Christian families should watch closely. It also streams plenty that families should skip.
A company "not growing as fast as I want" will keep looking for ways to win your evenings. That is its job. Guarding your household is yours. Pray for the workers who lost their jobs this week, and keep a hand on the remote.
Hero photo: Coolcaesar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (license).
