Tesla leads China recruitment event after Musk job warning

SHANGHAI, June 9 (Reuters) – Tesla continued its online recruitment drive in China on Thursday and added two dozen new job posts to the country, a week after Elon Musk threatened to cut electric car maker “overstaffing in some areas”.

Tesla (TSLA.O) The event is scheduled to take place online from 7pm Shanghai time (1100 GMT) and will employ staff for “smart production” roles, according to an online post.

According to a separate post on Tesla’s WeChat account, there are 224 current openings in China for managers and engineers under that category, 24 of which were newly released on June 9th.

Managers and engineers are in positions to oversee the operation of its 6,000-ton die casting machines, known as Giga Press, one of the world’s largest companies.

Tesla regularly hosts similar recruitment events online in China, most recently held in May for summer coaches.

Tesla’s China’s revenue will more than double in 2021 from a year ago, contributing a quarter of the U.S. automaker’s total revenue.

The Shanghai plant, which manufactures the Model 3 and Model Ys for domestic sales and exports, has produced more than half of the cars produced last year, and Tesla plans to expand its plant. read more

However, the plant’s output was badly affected by Shanghai’s two-month Covid-19 lockdown, which halted work for 22 days and then struggled to return to full production. Earlier, Tesla had planned to increase production at the plant to 22,000 cars per week by mid-May.

Musk, the chief executive, said in an email to Reuters last week that he had “a very bad feeling” about the economy and wanted to cut 10 percent of the electric car maker’s workforce. The email was titled “Suspend all hires worldwide”. read more

In another email sent to employees on Friday, Musk said Tesla would reduce the number of salaried employees by 10% because it has become “overstaffed in many areas” but “will increase the number of hourly employees”.

However, he withdrew from the emails on Saturday, saying the total number of employees would increase over the next 12 months and there would be a slight change in the number of salaried employees. read more

Musk did not comment specifically on staff in China.

Last month, Musk compared American workers to those in China, saying US workers were trying to avoid going to work, while Chinese workers would not leave factories.

“They will burn oil at 3am,” he told a conference of Chinese workers.

Report by Zhang Yan and Brenda Ko; Editing by Stephen Coates

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