Australia's Canva to restructure, affecting 22% of workforce

(Corrects headline and first paragraph to show the 1,271 jobs impacted includes job cuts, role changes and relocations, not only layoffs)

Nov 4 : Australian graphic design platform Canva Group said on Wednesday 1,271 jobs, or around 22 per cent of its workforce, will be affected by a restructuring after its growth slowed for the first time in a decade.

The Sydney-based company is the latest technology firm to reduce headcount as the sector adapts to rapid advances in AI and changing business needs.

Here are more details:

• Co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins said the changes would reshape Canva's organisational structure, team locations and staffing requirements

• Canva is combining its product, growth and platform teams into a single product organisation aimed at reducing handovers and giving teams greater ownership

• It is also simplifying management layers and consolidating roles to improve accountability and decision-making

• Canva plans to make Sydney the main base for more of its product teams and will ask some employees to relocate. From January, most hybrid workers will be expected to attend the office two to three days a week

• The graphic design firm will also provide $10,000 grants to departing employees for future endeavours

• Enterprise software company Atlassian cut 1,600 jobs in March to fund further investment in AI and enterprise sales

• In February, software company WiseTech Global cut nearly a third of its global workforce as part of a two‑year restructuring that could rank among the country's largest AI-linked job cuts