Netflix Reportedly Preparing to Cut About 850 Employees, 5% of Staff, According to Puck

According to Puck, Netflix is preparing a new round of layoffs that could affect about 5% of its employees, roughly 850 people. The report relies on anonymous sources, and the company has not confirmed it publicly. If the figures are accurate, this is a significant restructuring for an organization that spent years building a reputation for a tough but stable approach to staffing.

What is known so far

There are few facts, and they are worth listing plainly:

• Scale: about 5% of staff, roughly 850 people.
• Format: a "restructuring program," with no details on which divisions are affected.
• Source: Puck, citing people familiar with the company's plans.
• Confirmation: the article contains no official comment from Netflix.
• Back-of-the-envelope check: 850 people as 5% implies a headcount of about 17 thousand employees.

The "about 850" figure is approximate, and that needs stating separately. In leaks like this, the final number often differs from the initial one: the boundaries of the program shift, some people are moved to other teams, and some leave by mutual agreement.

Context: Netflix has cut staff before

This is not Netflix's first round. In 2022, the company laid off about 450 people in two stages, in May and June, as subscriber growth slowed and its share price fell. Management explicitly tied those decisions to a reassessment of its spending pace. Targeted cuts followed later, for example in animation.

If confirmed, the 2026 round would be larger: 850 people is almost double the total number of layoffs in 2022. Netflix's business has also changed noticeably since then. The company built out its ad-supported tier, invested in live broadcasts and games, and expanded its in-house production. Each of these areas needs its own teams, and any of them could in theory come under review.

What remains unknown

The main question is who exactly will be affected. The answer determines what this story is about: streamlining administrative functions, a shift in content priorities, or a reallocation of resources toward engineering and advertising teams. So far, none of these versions is backed by data.

It is also unclear how the restructuring relates to the use of AI in production and internal processes. Netflix has spoken publicly about using generative tools in production, but the layoffs cannot be linked to them without confirmation. That version remains conjecture, and we do not present it as fact.

How to read this news

For employees and job candidates in the industry, the practical takeaway is simple: wait for an official statement and a list of affected areas before drawing conclusions about the state of the streaming job market. For investors and partners, future management comments matter more: will the company explain which cost lines it is shifting its focus to, and how that will affect content output? For the rest of the industry, it is one more sign that even the segment's leaders keep rebuilding their cost structures.

We will return to the topic when Netflix confirms the report or Puck publishes new details.