Tesla advertises for 24 new roles in China and presses ahead with recruitment event, despite Musk urging company to cut 10% of its workforce
- Tesla added 24 jobs and plans to go ahead with an online hiring event in China, Reuters reports.
- This is despite Elon Musk's saying that Tesla was "overstaffed."
Tesla posted adverts for 24 new roles in China on Thursday, despite Elon Musk telling Tesla executives to pause all worldwide hiring last week.
Tesla also plans to go ahead with an online event recruiting for "smart manufacturing" roles in China on Thursday at 7 p.m. local time, the news agency reported. These events are semi-regular in China, the last one was held in May for summer interns, it added.
Tesla has 224 job openings in China for managers and engineers, 24 of which were posted on June 9, according to a company WeChat account seen by Reuters.
China plays an important role in Tesla's global operations. The company's Shanghai gigafactory was responsible for half of Tesla's global production last year.
Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.
The recruitment adverts come days after Musk told Tesla executives via email that he wanted to cut 10% of Tesla's workforce. The subject of the email was "pause all hiring worldwide."
Another email sent by Musk on Friday said the company was "overstaffed in some areas," adding that "hourly headcount will increase," even though he planned to cut salaried employees.
Insider reported that Tesla employed almost 100,000 people at the end of last year, according to the company's SEC filing. Cutting 10% of the total headcount would leave thousands of Tesla employees out of work.
Musk's announcement comes amid wider concerns about an impending recession. Musk said in the email he had a "super bad feeling" about the economy, which prompted his decision to slow hiring and cut down on staff.