Elon Musk aims 10% job cuts at Tesla over ‘super-bad-sense’ about economy

Key takeaways: 

• Email to executives also calls for a hiring freeze at electric car creators, with 100,000 employees worldwide.
• Elon Musk is thinking of a hiring freeze and job cuts of up to 10% of employees at Tesla because he has a “super bad feeling.”

According to an internal email noticed by Reuters, Elon Musk is thinking of a hiring freeze and job cuts of up to 10% of employees at Tesla because he has a “super bad feeling” regarding the economy's condition.

Tesla now has nearly 5,000 job openings promoted worldwide and 100,000 workers. The email was sent to Tesla executives late on Thursday with the topic line “pause all engaging worldwide.” It arrived days after Musk instructed all employees to return to the office for at least 40 hours a week or face direct termination.

Tesla’s shares were down 3% after hours on the news. Neither the firm nor Musk responded to demands for comment from the Guardian.

So far, there has been no decline in the need for Tesla cars and other electric vehicles. The usual indicators of a downturn – including rising dealer stocks and incentives in the US – have not materialized.