Twitter boss Jack Dorsey also founded Square, which is acquiring Australia's Afterpay for $29 billion

Block, the parent company of buy-now-pay-later firm Afterpay, has slashed 4,000 jobs from its global workforce.

The announcement was made by co-founder Jack Dorsey, and many Australians are feared to have been impacted by this decision.

Block Axes 4,000 People From Its Workforce

According to 9News, Dorsey made the announcement public via a post on X.

"Today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we're reducing our organisation by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000," he said in his post.

Dorsey denied that financial woes are the reason behind the massive job cuts. Instead, they have been attributed to artificial intelligence (AI).

"We're already seeing that the intelligence tools we're creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company," he explained.

"I had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now," the Block co-founder revealed. "I chose the latter."

Hours after announcing the job cuts, Block experience a surge in stock prices, according to a report by news.com.au.

How Will This Affect Aussie Employees?

9News notes in its report that the company has over 1000 employees based in Australia.

However, a company representative declined to reveal any information when asked by the outlet how many people in its Australian office will be affected by the job cuts.

The representative also declined to say how many employees of Afterpay will be affected by it.