Canva, Australia's homegrown tech unicorn, announced this week that 1,271 roles will be cut, changed or relocated. That's about 22% of its global staff. As an IT worker in Brisbane, that number worries me. AI now handles a lot of the design work people used to open Canva for, and it is taking coding jobs too. But one thing surprised me. My LinkedIn feed is barely angry about these layoffs, and some people are even praising the company. The reason is the exit package, and the contrast with how WiseTech Global handled its own cuts earlier this year.
I talked through this in Cantonese on my podcast. The video has English and Chinese subtitles, plus English and Mandarin audio tracks (⚙ Settings → Audio track).
How many jobs is Canva cutting?
Canva says 1,271 people, about 22% of its workforce, will lose their jobs, change roles or move to central hubs. CEO Melanie Perkins announced it in a note to staff on 3 November 2026. She didn't say how many of the 1,271 will actually leave the company.
Australia doesn't have many software companies with Canva's profile, so this is world news and Australian workplace news at the same time. It is also a big change for a company that, as Fortune reported in 2023, had gone about a decade without mass layoffs. Its first known cuts came in 2025, when 10 of its 12 technical writers were made redundant.
Why is Canva cutting jobs?
In her note, Perkins said Canva's growth has slowed for the first time in a decade. TechCrunch reports the company also cut its revenue growth forecast from 30% to 20%, partly because of rising AI costs, and is merging its product, growth and platform teams.
My own view is simpler, and it comes from how I use these tools. I used to use Canva a lot. Now I hardly need it. Older AI models had no eye for design and couldn't really see a layout. Models like Opus 5.5 can. Their vision keeps getting better.
Canva's strength was templates. You picked one, typed a few words, and had a poster without hiring a designer. That was a real change for ordinary people. But now I can do the same thing by talking to an AI: show it a few styles I like and keep chatting until it gets the poster or slide deck right. Making a PowerPoint has never been easier.
To be fair, AI isn't very original, and Canva's designs weren't very original either. When both give you something that looks fine, a lot of users simply move on to the tool they already pay for.
Is AI replacing programmers at Canva?
Partly, and that's the part that worries me. AI agents now automate a lot of coding work, so companies don't need as many programmers for the same output. I wrote about this from my own desk in Is the Programmer Outdated?: agents wrote about 36,000 lines of code for me in October. I still think programmers matter, but I'd be lying if I said a cut like this doesn't make me nervous.
Canva itself talks about slower growth, AI costs and fewer specialised roles. The pressure from AI is my own reading.
How did WiseTech Global handle its layoffs?
Badly, according to its staff union. Not long before Canva's news, WiseTech Global, the Sydney logistics software company, announced about 2,000 job cuts in an AI-led restructure (February 2026). Professionals Australia said the company only agreed to redundancy packages with minimum legal entitlements.
WiseTech also put non-compete clauses in its redundancy agreements. After pushback it narrowed them, but affected workers are still barred from joining four named rivals for 12 months. My own contract has a clause like that too, so I understand why people were upset. The bare legal minimum on the way out, and then limits on where you can work next. That reaction was very negative at the time.
What is in Canva's redundancy package?
It's generous by industry standards. According to People Matters, which reported the details of Canva's staff memo, departing employees get:
- At least six months' pay, including statutory entitlements, wherever they are.
- 12 months of healthcare in countries where Canva provides it, such as the US.
- Their company MacBook to keep, so they can use it to look for work.
- One year of LinkedIn Premium, plus career coaching and interview preparation.
- A year of Canva Care (employee assistance), including family members.
- A $10,000 grant from the Canva Collective Fund to start a business or community project, with no equity taken (register by 14 December).
- The one-year vesting cliff removed for people who joined in the past year.
Most layoffs are judged by the size of the cut. This one is being judged by how people are treated on the way out.
Is a redundancy payment taxed less in Australia?
Partly. Under ATO rules, a genuine redundancy payment is tax-free up to a limit made up of a base amount plus an amount for each completed year of service. Anything above that limit is taxed as an employment termination payment, at concessional rates up to a cap. Unused leave paid out is taxed separately. So some of a six-month package may be tax-free, but not necessarily all of it. I'm not a tax adviser, so check your own case with the ATO or an accountant.
Why does the way a company lays people off matter?
Because Canva sells to people, not just companies. A big share of its users are individual subscribers. Many people today have a strong sense of fairness, and if a company treats its staff badly, some customers will cancel. They'll say, "I don't really need this anyway. I'll use another AI." In a market where switching costs almost nothing, goodwill is part of the product.
That's why I think Canva got this right. People are still losing their jobs, and that's hard. But by paying properly and helping people land somewhere, Canva took a lot of the anger out of it.
Will Canva stay a top Australian tech company?
I hope so. When Canva started, it was creative, original and genuinely useful, and it put design in everyone's hands. Now AI is a huge challenge for it. I won't say AI will replace Canva, but the challenge is real. As an Australian IT worker, I'd like to see it keep its name as one of the best tech companies this country has produced.
If you're weighing up a career in tech while all this is happening, my earlier post on whether IT degrees still matter covers what I'd study now.
What do you think? Did Canva handle this well? If it were you, would you take the package and start a business, or look for a new job straight away? Tell me in the YouTube comments.
Sources
- Bloomberg, Canva announces layoffs, job changes for about 22% of workforce, 3 November 2026.
- TechCrunch, Canva lays off over 1,200 people amid slowing growth, 4 November 2026.
- People Matters, Canva layoffs: 22% employees to exit, company offers six months' salary (package details).
- ACS Information Age, Sacked WiseTech staff banned from four rival firms and WiseTech's damaging AI layoffs.
- ACS Information Age, Canva lays off technical writers amid AI push (2025).
- Fortune, How Canva avoided layoffs through internal mobility (2023).
- Australian Taxation Office, genuine redundancy and early retirement scheme payments (ato.gov.au).
Checked 5 November 2026. This is my personal view, not financial or tax advice. The research used AI-assisted search, checked against the sources above. The images were made locally with Qwen Image 2.1, and AI helped me edit the English.
