Tesla cancels hiring events in China for ‘overstaffing’

Tesla canceled three online employee recruitment events in China that were scheduled for this month. The decision followed comments from the company’s chief executive, Elon Musk, about job cuts at the automaker.

Musk said Tesla was “overstaffed” in some areas. However, the billionaire did not specifically comment on workers in China, where more than half of the automaker’s vehicles globally were produced.

The region accounted for a quarter of the company’s revenue in 2021.

Tesla canceled the three events for positions in sales, R&D (research and development) and supply chain originally scheduled for June 16, 23 and 30. The notices gave no reason for the cancellations.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Friday.

Notification of a June 9 event to recruit employees for “smart manufacturing” roles was not visible on the platform and it was not immediately clear whether it had gone as planned.

Tesla’s China operation also allows for the submission of resumes to more than 1,000 positions posted on the social network, including aerodynamic engineer, supply chain manager, store manager and factory supervisor positions.

Last week, Musk said he had a “very bad feeling” about the economy, according to an email seen by Reuters. In another message to employees last Friday, Musk said Tesla would reduce the number of workers by 10% as it was “overstaffed in many areas”.

Production at Tesla’s Shanghai factory has been severely impacted after city officials began a two-month lockdown in late March citing concerns about the spread of Covid-19.

Factory production is expected to fall by more than a third this quarter from the previous quarter, a bigger drop than Musk had expected.