Up until a few weeks ago, Tesla boasted a workforce of over 140,000 employees. However, in recent weeks, the EV giant has seen a wave of layoffs, coupled with a hiring freeze in the country, especially in its North American offices.
As of Wednesday, Tesla’s job board displayed only three available positions. These roles are all part of its manufacturing development program based in Texas, California, or Nevada. The program offers a seven-week training period with the potential for participants to transition into full-time Production Associate roles at Tesla factories.
This stark reduction contrasts sharply with the extensive job offerings available until Tuesday. An archived version of Tesla’s career webpage from May 1 revealed over 3,400 postings across the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
Most of these positions were concentrated in California, Texas, and Nevada, where Tesla operates its sprawling Gigafactories. As recently as Tuesday, many of these job listings were still active on Tesla’s website.
On LinkedIn, Tesla currently advertises 326 job openings, most of which are located in China, alongside a few in Europe and one in the Dominican Republic. Interestingly, only one job listing on the manufacturing development program appears in the United States.
In about two months, this marks the second such time when Tesla has nuked nearly all of its job postings. According to a news portal, Drive Tesla, on April 16, when it announced a round of layoffs, most of the job postings across Tesla’s North American operations back then had been removed. However, within a few days, the job board was repopulated with thousands of postings.
In a message to employees last month, CEO Elon Musk attributed the job cuts to streamlining operations due to duplicated roles and functions in certain areas. Musk emphasized the need to cut costs and increase productivity as the company prepares for its next expansion phase.
Musk thanked and extended well wishes to the approximately 14,000 affected workers, acknowledging the difficult decision that had to be made. During the initial days of the layoffs, Musk expressed that he regretted the decision.
However, In more recent communications, Musk has taken a firmer stance. In an email to senior Tesla executives, he expressed how the organization had to be “absolutely hardcore” about layoffs going forward.
Musk also stated his intention to request the resignation of any executive who retains more than three employees who do not meet the criteria of excellence, necessity, and trustworthiness. Following this directive, at least three executives departed later that week.
According to a Bloomberg report last month, the first wave of headcount reductions at Tesla may have affected more than 20,000 people. Furthermore, summer internship offers were rescinded just weeks before the interns were set to start.
Tesla started its fourth consecutive week of layoffs on Monday. The latest round affected various roles, including service advisers, human resource personnel, product engineers, and industrializing engineers.
Furthermore, at least six high-profile executives have resigned or plan to do so later this year. This includes former senior vice president of powertrain and energy Drew Baglino and senior director of human resources for North America Allie Arebalo.
