Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned the electrical car maker’s whole headcount will enhance over the subsequent 12 months, however the variety of salaried employees must be little modified, backtracking from an e mail simply two days in the past saying that job cuts of 10 % had been wanted.

“Whole headcount will enhance, however salaried must be pretty flat,” Musk tweeted on Saturday in a reply to an unverified Twitter account that made a “prediction” that Tesla’s headcount would enhance over the subsequent 12 months.

Musk in an e mail to Tesla executives on Thursday mentioned he has a “tremendous unhealthy feeling” in regards to the U.S. financial system and wanted to chop jobs by about 10 %.

Musk had beforehand advised employees that the job cuts won’t apply to employees who construct automobiles or battery packs, in line with individuals who obtained an inner memo Friday.

In an e mail to staff on Friday, Musk mentioned Tesla would scale back salaried headcount by 10 %, as a result of the corporate has turn into “overstaffed in lots of areas.” However “hourly headcount will enhance,” he mentioned.

In response to a Tesla U.S. regulatory submitting, the corporate and its subsidiaries had nearly 100,000 staff on the finish of 2021. About 39 % of the employees had been “manufacturing line staff,” in line with the corporate’s annual report. 

Earlier than his emails on staffing ranges, Musk on Wednesday in an e mail to Tesla staff issued an ultimatum to return to the workplace for at least 40 hours every week. Failure to take action could be taken as a resignation, he wrote.

Musk on Thursday mentioned Tesla’s AI day has been pushed to Sept. 30, and mentioned a prototype of Optimus, a humanoid robotic that may be a firm precedence, may very well be prepared by then and may very well be launched subsequent 12 months.

Bloomberg contributed to this report