Elon Musk has provided some more clarity to his recent statements that Tesla will be cutting its workforce by 10%.
On Friday Reuters reported that Musk had emailed his executives to say he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy and as a result was instituting a hiring freeze and cutting 10% of the company’s workforce.
Interestingly that email was never leaked in its entirety, something which typically happens when the media reports on an Elon Musk email.
Following that report, Musk sent an email to all staff to say that the job cuts would only apply to salaried employees, and that the company intends to increase the number of employees that are paid by the hour.
Despite that clarification, the news panicked investors and the stock fell nearly 10% on Friday.
In another attempt to set the record straight, Musk clarified in a Saturday afternoon tweet that Tesla’s total headcount will actually be increasing over the next 12 months. The CEO added the number of salaried employees “should be fairly flat.”
Total headcount will increase, but salaried should be fairly flat
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2022
With the build-out and opening of Giga Berlin and Giga Texas, the number of Tesla employees has grown to nearly 100,000 by the end of 2021.
In Tesla’s most recent 10-K filing with the SEC the company said it had 99,290 employees as of December 31, 2021, an increase of over 40% compared to the previous year when it had 70,757 employees at the end of 2020.
The filing also revealed that Tesla had hired 28,533 employees in 2021.
