Elon Musk, the world's richest man and electric car manufacturer Tesla says he has a "super bad feeling" about the economy and wants to slash Tesla's workforce by 10%..His remarks came from an email to employers. Reuters, which was provided a copy, said Musk sent an email on Thursday ordering a freeze on new hires and wrote that he was nervous about the state of the economy..Tesla shares tumbled more than 7% Friday after he expressed his concerns. Questions from US regulators regarding complaints about the electric vehicles braking for no reason are also plaguing the billionaire..It’s the fourth formal investigation of the Texas automaker since 2019..Tesla’s LinkedIn page continues to show more than 5,000 active new employment opportunities at the company as of early Friday morning, despite his alleged concern about the company's resilience..Tesla and its subsidiaries had 99,290 active employees at the end of 2021 according to a May filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission..The markets reacted negatively to Reuters’ report with Tesla’s Nasdaq-listed shares being down in pre-market trading early Friday morning..The news comes just two days after Musk told employees to return to the office, or leave the company..Musk said at the time in another email to employees, "Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week.".When asked about people who want to work remotely, he tweeted “they should pretend to work somewhere else.”.Speaking at an event organized by the Financial Times in May, Musk praised Tesla’s workers in China, saying they were willing to work long hours, sometimes as late as 3 a.m. and not leave the factory if needed..He then chastised his US Tesla employees, saying, “People are trying to avoid going to work at all.”.Musk subsequently clarified the 10% reduction in headcount only applies to “salaried employees.".The original email in full:.Headcount ReductionTesla will be reducing salaried headcount by 10% as we have become overstaffed in many areas.Note, this does not apply to anyone actually building cars, battery packs or installing solar. Hourly headcount will increase.Elon.In late May, when asked on Twitter if he thought the economy was entering a recession, Musk said, "Yes, but this is actually a good thing. It has been raining money on fools for too long. Some bankruptcies need to happen.".Tesla shares have lost nearly a third of their price since early April, shortly after Musk first publicly announced his intention to buy Twitter. The Twitter purchase is currently in limbo as Musk awaits data from the board concerning bot accounts..Tesla shares fell $55.66, or 7.2%, to $719.34 in early trading Friday. Shares were trading around $1,150 just two months ago.
