After Elon Musk’s remark on job cuts, Tesla has cancelled its June hiring events in China

Tesla Inc has cancelled three online recruitment events slated for China this month, the latest step after CEO Elon Musk announced job cuts at the electric vehicle maker, claiming that it was “overstaffed” in some regions.

Musk, on the other hand, had made no mention of employment in China, which produced more than half of the automaker’s vehicles globally and accounted for a quarter of its sales in 2021.

The company cancelled three events for sales, R&D, and supply chain positions that were previously slated for June 16, 23, and 30, according to alerts sent late Thursday on the messaging app WeChat.

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

A June 9 event to attract personnel for “smart manufacturing” employment was not advertised, and it was unclear whether it had taken place as scheduled.

More than 1,000 job positions on the social networking site, such as aerodynamics engineers, supply chain managers, store managers, factory supervisors, and labourers, are still accessible for resume submission in the China operation.

Musk stated in an email reviewed by Reuters last week that he had a “very awful vibe” about the economy.

Musk stated in another email to employees on Friday that salaried headcount will be cut by a tenth since the company had grown “overstaffed in many areas,” but that hourly headcount would increase.

After the Chinese economic centre launched a two-month Covid-19 lockdown late in March, production at Tesla’s Shanghai facility was severely hampered.

This quarter’s output is expected to drop by more than a third from the previous one, exceeding Musk’s forecast.