Twitter lays off remaining Australian employees: reports

Company also sends out separation agreements to workers dismissed months ago

Twitter lays off remaining Australian employees: reports

Twitter has shuttered its local office in Australia, as it sacks the remaining staff members as part of CEO Elon Musk's widespread layoffs.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Wednesday that Twitter "had closed its local office," citing anonymous industry sources, adding that other offices in the region were also being shuttered.

The news follows report that the company sent separation agreements to laid-off workers in the U.S., months after the layoffs happened.

Twitter Australia used to have about 40 employees in its local workforce. But this number was reduced in 2022 to a "skeleton" team after the staff in the government relations, communications, marketing, and news curation divisions were "almost entirely laid off" as part of Musk's global layoffs.

The sales team were the "least affected" by the layoffs in 2022, but the Sydney Morning Herald's report indicates that they would also be dismissed if the remaining employees were cut as part of the downsizing efforts.

Mass layoffs

Musk carried out the mass layoffs after purchasing the social media company for US$44 billion in late October, with about half of Twitter's 7,500 employees affected.

Twitter is only one of the many companies laying off staff. Due to economic uncertainty, employers like Disney, Meta, and Amazon have announced job cuts and even hiring freezes to minimise costs.

Most recently, investment bank Goldman Sachs will also terminate about 3,200 staff, including 10 Australian employees, as a cost-cutting step amid economic uncertainty, Daily Mail reported.