9:00 am, June 6, 2022
Tesla boss Elon Musk has backtracked on his own warning that Tesla needs to shed ten per cent of its workforce and now claims that ‘headcount will increase’ in the next year.
The EV mogul said over the weekend that Tesla had ‘suspended hiring’ due to a ‘super bad feeling’ he had about the direction of the economy.
However, in a fresh twist, he has now denied that to be the case. He says that the firm will continue to hire new staff, although salaries will remain ‘fairly flat’ in the next 12 months.
Total headcount will increase, but salaried should be fairly flat
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2022
The latest development comes after a leaked email, with the subject line ‘pause all hiring worldwide’, was seen by Reuters last week.
The internal message was sent from CEO Musk to company executives, triggered a nine per cent fall in shares in the American company.
The email came two days after Musk ordered workers to return to the office for a minimum of 40 hours a week or face leaving Tesla, saying ‘remote work is no longer acceptable’.
In another email seen by the news agency, Musk said Tesla would be cutting its salaried headcount by 10 per cent.
Tesla has seen its stock market value slump by a third since April, when Musk announced his controversial takeover of Twitter.
News of the £34.5bn caused shareholders to lose faith in Tesla, with Musk forced to issue a statement reaffirming his commitment to the company.
