We have apparently reached the point where Elon Musk is talking more sense about the dire state of the US economy than the whole pack of Fed heads and their Wall Street megaphones combined. And he’s apparently walking the talk, too, ordering a 10% cut in Tesla staffing:
The latest sign of an impending job market shock is an email seen by Reuters from the world’s richest man, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who told executives the electric carmaker needs to cut staff by 10% because he has a “super bad feeling” about where the economy was headed.
The email, titled “pause all hiring worldwide,” was sent to executives on Thursday and is the latest sign of mounting macroeconomic headwinds as lower-than-expected US new car sales in May could be a harbinger of a recession.
In an another email Tuesday, Musk told employees:
“Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week … If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”
On Wednesday, Musk tweeted: “Recessions serve a vital economic cleansing function.”
Tesla, which has EV factories worldwide, including ones in the US, Berlin, and China, employs about 100k staff, so reducing 10% of jobs could equate to 10k people.
It’s hard to be more explicit and consistent than that.