CEO Elon Musk said "Tesla is moving ahead with plans to layoff about 10% of its salaried staff"
"Tesla is reducing the salaried workforce roughly 10% over the next probably three months or so." Musk said.
"It's quite clear we expect to grow our hourly workforce. We grew very fast on the salaried side and we grew a little too fast in some areas" Musk added
"So it requires a reduction in the salaried workforce." Musk has been sending out conflicting signals on his staffing plans for the last month.
Tesla had about 100,000 employees worldwide as of the end of last year, about 42% of them from the United States.
The company also said that roughly 39% of its global staff were production line workers at the start of the year.
On Tuesday Musk said about one-third of Tesla employees are salaried, and the 10% cut in that part of the staff.
Musk said "roughly a 3% to 3.5% reduction in total headcount," which he referred to as "not super material."
In that email, he said he had a "super bad feeling" about the economy. "I think a recession is inevitable at some point. As to whether there is a recession in the near term," Musk said