Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in an email to all employees at the electric vehicle maker on Friday that the company will cut 10% of salaried workers and will instead rely on more hourly workers.
Shares of Tesla dipped 9% on Friday by midmorning after Reuters reported on an earlier email Musk had sent to executives about his plans to cut the company’s workforce and expressing a “super bad feeling” about the economy.
In its year-end financial filing, Tesla said it employed 99,290 people around the world as of the end of 2021.
President Joe Biden was asked about Musk’s negative economic outlook on Friday after news of Tesla’s head count reduction was out.
Biden said that while Musk is talking about economic fears and reductions, Ford is increasing its investment in building new electric vehicles, with 6,000 new, union employees in the Midwest.
The president also lauded the former Chrysler Corp., Stellantis, for making similar investments in electric vehicle production in the U.S. and Intel for adding 20,000 new jobs in computer chip manufacturing.
“So, you know, lots of luck on his trip to the moon,” Biden quipped.
Here’s the new email Musk sent to all Tesla employees as transcribed by CNBC:
To: Everybody
Subject: Headcount Reduction
Date: Friday, June 3, 2022
Tesla will be reducing salaried headcount by 10% as we have become overstaffed in many areas. Note this does not apply to anyone actually building cars, battery packs or installing solar. Hourly headcount will increase.
Elon
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