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Canva is restructuring 22% of its workforce, affecting 1,271 employees. Departing staff will receive at least six months of salary and 12 months of healthcare coverage.
Canva is restructuring 22% of its workforce, affecting 1,271 employees, according to Fortune. Co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins announced the restructuring in a note to staff that she also shared on LinkedIn.
Perkins wrote that Canva’s growth slowed this year for the first time in a decade, and in August the company cut its 2026 revenue growth forecast from 30% to 20%, the Australian Financial Review reported.
Departing employees will receive at least six months’ salary, inclusive of statutory entitlements, regardless of location. On top of that, they’ll receive 12 months of continued healthcare coverage in countries where Canva already provides it.
Other perks include career transition support, complete with one-on-one coaching, interview preparation and a year of LinkedIn Premium. Employees leaving the company can also take their company MacBooks with them, and Canva is removing the one-year vesting cliff for people who joined in the past year.
Through a new Canva Collective Fund, eligible departing employees can apply for $10,000 grants to pursue an idea, start a business or launch a project, without Canva taking any equity or ownership in what they create. Applications close Dec. 14.
Jasveer Singh, co-founder and CEO of KnotDating, called it “a master-class in how to handle layoffs” and described Perkins’s announcement as “thoughtful, honest and generous,” Newsweek reported. Mark Di Stefano, Rear Window editor at the Australian Financial Review, called the package “exceedingly generous.”
Some question the amount of positive attention the company has garnered. “My initial reaction was, ‘Why are we celebrating a layoff?’” says Meredith Klein, a former communications executive and author of Meredith & The Media, a media-focused newsletter.
A Canva spokesperson told Fortune these roles are not being replaced by AI. “AI is changing what’s possible for our community and the kinds of products we’re now building. That also changes how we need to organize our teams and the skills we’ll need. These changes are about setting Canva up to build those products, not using AI to do the work of people who are leaving.”
For some of the 1,271, the restructuring means new roles or a request to relocate, with Sydney becoming the main base for more product teams. For others, it means leaving the company. Canva has not said how many will lose their jobs.
The average severance package in the tech industry was 11.2 weeks of pay in 2024, according to a 2025 report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Canva’s minimum of six months, or roughly 26 weeks, is more than double that.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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