Tesla is already the second-largest private employer in Texas, but soon that number will expand to not only make Tesla the largest private employer in the Lone Star State, but also make Giga Texas the largest vehicle manufacturing facility in North America.
At the end of 2022, less than a year after Giga Texas first opened its doors and the first cars officially rolled off the production line, there were already 12,277 employees at the factory, a figure that was in line CEO Elon Musk’s predictions that the factory would need “over 10,000 employees” through the first year. (via Austin Business Journal)
In the nine months since Tesla last reported their Giga Texas employee count, that number has nearly doubled. According to Jason Shawhan, Tesla’s director of manufacturing at Giga Texas, there are now over 20,000 workers at the facility on a daily basis. Depending on how far over 20,000, Giga Texas is likely just behind Tesla’s Fremont factory as the largest car plant in North America at around 22,000 employees.
Despite hiring at such a rapid pace, the company has no plans to slow down, in fact they will only be accelerating their hiring efforts thanks to a new vehicle that will soon be coming out of Giga Texas – the Cybertruck.
Shawhan says that once the Cybertruck has ramped production, there will be as many as 60,000 workers at Giga Texas. This would easily make Tesla the largest private employer in the state, a title which is currently held by the grocery chain H-E-B, which has 22,955 employees at last count.
One problem posed by such such a rapidly increasing headcount is the space that is needed for all of them to park their cars. To solve this Tesla is building a large parking garage on the southeast side of the factory, the progress of which has been tracked by drone pilot Joe Tegtmeyer.
