Australia’s Canva to Restructure, Affecting 22% of Workforce

Australian graphic design platform Canva Group said on Wednesday that a restructuring would affect 1,271 jobs, or around 22% of its workforce, after 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. Co-founder ‌and CEO Melanie Perkins said ‌the ⁠changes would reshape Canva's ⁠organizational structure, team locations and staffing requirements. Canva is combining its product, growth and platform teams into a single product organization 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 ⁠endeavors 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 said it would cut nearly a third of its global workforce as part of a two-year restructuring that could rank among Australia's largest AI-linked job cuts. It later trimmed that number to about 26% in August.