Elon Musk announces hiring freeze at Tesla, every tenth employee to be laid off

Skyrocketing production costs, supply chain constraints and the unrelenting inflation in general is a major concern for many companies around the world. After the eccentric entrepreneur Elon Musk recently announced new and strict in-person work requirements for all Tesla employees, the electric car pioneer has once again made some negative headlines to close out a rather turbulent week.

According to a report by the reputable news agency Reuters, Musk has recently informed his executives at Tesla that he had a "super bad feeling" about the global economy. Accordingly, no new employees will be hired at Tesla until further notice. This hiring freeze will purportedly apply to all Tesla locations worldwide, which would for example include the just recently opened Gigafactory near the German capital of Berlin.

Thousands of Tesla employees could be let go

Elon Musk has further announced an even more drastic cost-saving measure in a second leaked email. Supposedly, the company will cut 10% of its staff as he has determined that the electric carmaker is currently “overstaffed in many areas”. At the end of last year, the company had around 100,000 employees according to official figures, which means that up to 10,000 Tesla employees could soon be dismissed.

However, Musk specified that these plans do not apply to employees who are “actually building cars [or] battery packs”. Furthermore, solar installers are also said to be unaffected by these cuts. In response to the leaked emails, Tesla's stock price plummeted by around 9 percent on Friday, and the company has now lost almost 44% in value after it reached a new all-time high last year.

Purchase the "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future" biography on Amazon