Tesla to cut 10% staff, pauses all hiring, says Elon Musk

The world's richest man and chief executive of Tesla Elon Musk has said that the electric car maker is going to reduce its staff strength by 10% and also he had a super bad feeling about the world economy.

An internal email which was titled "pause all hiring worldwide," was sent to Tesla executives on Thursday. The copy of the email has been seen by news agency Reuters.

Musk earlier this week asked Tesla employees to return to the office or leave the company.

"Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week," Musk wrote in another email sent to employees on Tuesday night. "If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned."

Musk's stark warning of a potential recession and the knock-on effect for automakers is the most direct and high-profile forecast of its kind in the industry.

While concerns about the risk of a recession have grown, demand for Tesla cars and other electric vehicles has remained strong and many of the traditional indicators of a downturn - including increasing dealer inventories in the United States - have not materialized.

But Tesla has struggled to restart production at its Shanghai factory after COVID-19 lockdowns forced costly outages at the plant.

Musk's gloomy outlook echoes recent comments from executives including JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs President John Waldron.

A "hurricane is right out there down the road coming our way," Dimon said this week.

Inflation in the United States is hovering at 40-year highs and has caused a jump in the cost of living for Americans, while the Federal Reserve faces the difficult task of dampening demand enough to curb inflation while not causing a recession.