Canva's restructuring will affect 1,271 people worldwide, about 22% of its workforce, in what co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins called the hardest moment in the design company's 13-year history. The Australian software giant maintains a San Francisco campus in the Jackson Square neighborhood that employs roughly 90 people, and it has not said whether anyone there will be affected.
Perkins announced the restructuring in a company post, writing that she had “some profoundly difficult news to share,” according to KRON4. The 1,271 figure covers employees who will lose their jobs, be asked to relocate or have their roles changed — not a straight layoff count, as the BBC reported. Canva has not disclosed how many of those affected will actually be let go, per TechRepublic.
Canva opened its Jackson Square campus in San Francisco last year, and the station's report notes the company has not specified how many, if any, of those roughly 90 workers will be swept into the cuts. The uncertainty echoes the broader opacity around the plan: Canva says it will change how it's organized, where teams are based, and what roles and skills it needs going forward, but has left the local-level math unanswered for now.
Sydney Becomes the New Center of Gravity
Part of the restructuring involves folding Canva's Product, Growth and Platform teams into a single Product Org, according to Business Insider, which reviewed Perkins' internal memo. Canva also said Sydney would become the “primary home” for more of its product teams, the BBC reported, a shift that could mean some employees elsewhere, including in the U.S., are asked to relocate to centralized hubs rather than lose their jobs outright. Business Insider's review of the memo also found that starting in January, Canva expects most hybrid employees to be in the office around two to three days a week.
For workers who are let go, Canva says it will provide at least six months of salary and healthcare coverage for a further 12 months in countries where it offers that benefit, according to The Guardian. KRON4's report adds that departing employees will also receive vesting of shares, including those with less than a year at the company. Perkins said Canva would do everything possible to support everyone affected.
A Slowdown After a Decade of Growth
Perkins attributed the shake-up to a slowdown she said Canva hadn't seen in ten years, telling staff that growth had slowed for the first time in a decade, per the BBC. Canva, founded and headquartered in Australia, had lowered its 2026 revenue growth forecast from 30% to 20% back in August, Business Insider reported. The Guardian noted that Canva's own restructuring announcement did not mention artificial intelligence, even as the publication framed the broader tech sector as under pressure from cheaper AI-driven competitors.
Canva's cuts land amid a wider wave of technology layoffs. The Guardian reported 1,600 redundancies at Atlassian alongside job losses at Block and WiseTech Global, while the Sydney Morning Herald detailed that Atlassian's cuts came in March, the same month WiseTech Global announced it would slash 2,000 jobs. The Next Web separately reported that Squarespace said it was laying off 19% of its staff.
Nationally, tech layoffs have continued. The Crunchbase News tracker lists at least 427 employees for the week ending June 17. For now, the question of how San Francisco's Jackson Square office fits into Canva's restructuring remains open, with no word yet on how many of its roughly 90 employees might be touched.
