Twitter CEO Elon Musk has admitted laying off half of the company's global workforce as part of efforts to cut costs to turn the company around.

Musk was speaking at an investors conference in New York on Friday. Asked whether he had carried out the sweeping layoffs, he nodded.

The new CEO also tweeted on the same day, "Unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day."

He said everyone laid off was offered three months of severance pay, 50 percent more than legally required.

Twitter had 7,500 employees across the globe at the end of last year. The layoffs are believed to affect around 4,000 people.

The struggling social media company posted a net loss in 2021 for a second consecutive year.