Atlassian Is Cutting 1,600 Jobs, but It’s Not Targeting Entry-Level Jobs. Here’s Why

Mike Cannon-Brookes listed three categories of employees that would be safe from cuts.

BY AVA LEVINSON, NEWS WRITER

Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes. (Photo by Brent Lewin/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Amid what is widely considered a difficult job market for recent college graduates, Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes just issued a glimmer of hope. He told staff that while the software company would cut 1,600 jobs, around 10 percent of its staff, it was holding on to key employees. 

Three categories were among the group sure to be kept on board. 

“Guided by company-wide principles and a disparate impact analysis, we made some structural org changes and focused on retaining Atlassians with the skills to help us thrive as an AI-first company—this included strong performers, graduates, and Atlassians with transferable skills,” Cannon-Brookes wrote to employees, according to Business Insider. 

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As AI continues to evolve and the threat of job cuts looms large, it’s entry-level positions that many believe are most at risk. Stanford researchers in November said that recent graduates, ages 22 to 25, in AI-exposed fields “experienced 16 percent relative employment declines,” according to Business Insider. 

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Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO, has said he expects that AI will deplete as many as half of entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years. 

But in October, Cannon-Brookes said Atlassian would bring on more new graduates than it did in 2024 and 2023 to fill its research and development and engineering teams. 

“There’s a good chance that those graduates come in with a different view on what it means to be a software developer and shake up the existing world of talent in a positive way for my business,” he told the 20VC podcast.

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