Tesla's Elon Musk May Pause Hires, 10% Staff Cut, Economic Uncertainty

The CEO has been talking about inflation, and now he admits he has a "super bad feeling" about the economy.

By: Steven Loveday

Jun 3, 2022 at 11:07am ET

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Reuters reportedly gained access to an email CEO Elon Musk sent to his executives at Tesla. The media outlet shared that the email mentions Musk's "super bad feeling" about the economic situation going forward. For this reason, Musk has reportedly asked his team to cut about 10 percent of employees at the electric automaker.

The article, which was republished by Autoblog, is said to contain the subject title, "pause all hiring worldwide." Keep in mind that Musk just recently told his executives that they should plan on leaving Tesla if they're not going to start reporting to a real office for at least 40 hours per week. It seems his suggestion was specifically for the top brass at Tesla, though he sent follow-up emails to a larger audience, so there's been some speculation that the CEO may be encouraging most workers to favor office time over remote work.

Reuters notes that as of the end of 2021, some 100,000 people held positions at Tesla and its related subsidiaries. This could mean Tesla will lay off around 10,000 workers. However, with the reported subject title to pause hiring, as well as the ultimatum to execs, perhaps the CEO has a different plan for reducing the workforce. For reference, Tesla recently had some 5,000 open job positions posted across the globe. There's really no telling of what Musk might have in store, and Tesla didn't respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

At any rate, Musk has been mentioning inflation and the economic situation on Twitter and in a host of recent interviews. He talks of the US government "printing money," and he's also noted that times of recession, which can lead to bankruptcies, can work as a sort of weeding out process for companies that just aren't getting the job done.

Nonetheless, the bulk of available information continues to point to high demand for Tesla's vehicles across the globe. Wait times are growing for deliveries, Tesla China is finally getting back to cranking out cars for local delivery and export, and activity in Berlin and Austin continues to appear almost frantic by many accounts.

As far as an actual recession is concerned, Reuters shared global head of macroeconomic research at Dutch bank ING Carsten Brzeski's statement in reference to Musk's economic concerns:

"Musk's bad feeling is shared by many people. But we are not talking about global recession. We expect a cooling of the global economy towards the end of the year. The U.S. will cool off, while China and Europe are not going to rebound."

What do you think?

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Meanwhile, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently said that a "hurricane is right out there down the road coming our way," in reference to the upcoming economic forecast.

Head down to the comment section and let us know what you think. Is Musk correct? Will Tesla resort to laying people off, or just pause new hires and hope for some folks to pack their bags?

Source: Reuters via Autoblog