Tesla Stock Rises 4% in Premarket Trading.
Musk on Saturday tweeted that Tesla’s total workforce would grow, even as the number of salaried workers remains broadly the same.
Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk sent staff, investors and electric-car watchers on a three-day rollercoaster with conflicting messages about potential job cuts, underlining the sometimes erratic nature of his leadership and muddying the automaker’s outlook.
Musk on Saturday tweeted that Tesla’s total workforce would grow, even as the number of salaried workers remains broadly the same. That followed his Friday message to employees that 10% of salaried workers would lose their jobs. According to people who received the memo, Musk said Tesla is overstaffed in some areas, though the cuts won’t apply to people who assemble cars or battery packs.
His apparent attempt to soften the blow for Tesla’s some 100,000-strong workforce added to confusion for shareholders and observers looking for signs of an electric-car slowdown. The automaker’s stock slumped 9.2% on Friday as news of the job cuts emerged. Reuters earlier reported that Musk told some Tesla executives he was reducing staff because he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy.