Tesla goes ahead with China hiring event after Elon Musk job warning

SHANGHAI -- Tesla Inc. was proceeding with an online hiring event in China on Thursday and added two dozen new job postings for the country, a week after CEO Elon Musk threatened job cuts at the automaker and said the company was "overstaffed" in some areas.

Tesla has 224 current openings in China for managers and engineers under that category, according to a separate post on its WeChat account, 24 of which were newly posted on Thursday.

Among the posted positions are managers and engineers to supervise the operation of its 6,000-ton die casting machinery known as Giga Press, one of the world's biggest.

Tesla regularly holds such hiring events online in China, with the latest one held in May for summer interns.

Tesla's China revenue more than doubled in 2021 from a year ago, contributing to a quarter of the total income for the U.S. automaker.

The Shanghai plant, which manufactures Model 3 and Model Ys for domestic sale and export, produced more than half of the cars it made last year and Tesla is also planning to expand the factory.

However, output at the plant was badly hit by Shanghai's two-month COVID-19 lockdown that saw it halt work for 22 days and later struggle to return to full production.

Prior to this, Tesla had planned to ramp up production at the plant to 22,000 cars a week by mid-May.

Musk, said in an email seen by Reuters last week that he had a "super bad feeling" about the economy and needed to cut 10 percent of staff at the automaker. The email was titled "pause all hiring worldwide."

In another email to employees on Friday, Musk said Tesla would reduce salaried headcount by 10 percent, as it has become "overstaffed in many areas" but added that "hourly headcount will increase."

However, on Saturday he backed away from the emails, saying total headcount would increase over the next 12 months and the number of salaried staff should be little changed.

Musk had not commented specifically on staffing in China.

Musk last month compared U.S. workers to those in China, saying American workers tended to try to avoid going to work whereas Chinese workers would not leave the factories.

"They will be burning the 3 am oil," he said at a conference of Chinese workers.

Tesla sold 32,165 China-made vehicles in May, including 22,340 for export, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said on Thursday.

Tesla's Shanghai factory produced 33,544 vehicles in May, up 212 percent from April, the association added.

The CPCA said China's overall passenger-car sales in May fell 17 percent to 1.37 million.