Netflix lays off an additional 300 employees - June 24, 2022

Germany declared a gas crisis after Russia reduced natural gas delivery to the nation, prompting Europe’s largest economy to accuse Moscow of engaging in an “economic attack.” Germany announced the second stage of its three-stage emergency gas plan but stopped short of rationing gas supplies. Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans accused Russia of weaponizing its energy supply in an effort to undermine European unity while Kremlin representatives said the reduction in gas was a result of technical problems. Following Germany’s announcement, European power prices surged to their highest level since December with some observers saying coal may be used as an alternative power source during the winter. U.S. weekly jobless claims fell by 2,000 claims for the past week in what some said could be a sign that labor market pressure may be easing. While the drop marks the second straight weekly decline, observers cautioned that claims are still hovering near a five-month high while job cuts in multiple sectors have been reported. Although some economists argued the labor market has already seen its best days, others said the figures suggest the labor market is remaining strong. Some observers have noted that workers’ power relative to employers has cooled, with economic researchers arguing while workers have not lost power, they have stopped gaining it compared to the early days of the pandemic. Streaming giant Netflix laid off more than 300 employees in order to bring costs in line with “slower revenue growth” caused by recent losses in subscribers. Netflix said it expects to lose up to 2 million more subscribers in the current quarter. Other ideas to bring costs in line with growth have been floated, including cracking down on password sharing and introducing a lower-priced account with ads. With the latter strategy set to go forward, Google and NBCUniversal have been reported as top contenders for helping Netflix develop its ad-tier service. Intel postponed the groundbreaking of its new chip fact