Topline
Tesla CEO Elon Musk wants to lay off around 10% of Tesla’s workforce due to his concerns about the state of the global economy, Reuters reported on Friday citing an internal email sent to company executives, a move that could see thousands of workers at the electric car maker lose their jobs amid growing fears of a recession.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly wants to lay off 10% of Tesla’s workforce as he anticipates an … [+] economic downturn.
Key Facts
According to Reuters, Musk sent an email on Thursday ordering a freeze on new hiring and wrote that he has a “super bad feeling” about the state of the economy.
Despite the purported email, Tesla’s LinkedIn page continues to show more than 5,000 active new openings at the company as of early Friday morning.
According to last year’s earnings report, Tesla and its subsidiaries had 99,290 active employees at the end of 2021.
The markets reacted negatively to Reuters’ report with Tesla’s Nasdaq-listed shares being down 3.8% in pre-market trading early on Friday morning.
Tesla did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
Big Number
$233.7 billion. That’s Musk’s total net worth as of Friday morning, according to Forbes’ real-time tracker, making him the richest person in the world. The mercurial billionaire’s net worth has fluctuated significantly over the past two months as the saga over his planned acquisition of Twitter has played out.
Key Background
Musk’s reported call for job cuts at Tesla comes just days after another controversial email allegedly written by him was leaked to the public. In the email, the billionaire reportedly ordered Tesla executive staff to return to work a minimum of 40 hours a week from the company’s office, effectively barring full remote work. Musk did not confirm or deny that he wrote the email and when asked about people who want to work remotely he tweeted “they should pretend to work somewhere else.” Last month, speaking at an event organized by the Financial Times, Musk praised Tesla’s factory workers in China, saying they were willing to work long hours, sometimes as late as 3 a.m. and not even leave the factory if needed. He then took a dig at American workers, saying: “People are trying to avoid going to work at all.”
Further Reading
Exclusive: Elon Musk wants to cut 10% of Tesla jobs (Reuters)
