Tesla (TSLA) appears to be changing its tune on a major workforce decision it made a few months ago. The electric vehicle company, co-founded by Elon Musk, is silently ramping up its headcount as it is looking to push forward a few highly anticipated initiatives.
After laying off over 10% of its workforce in April, which left about 14,000 employees without a job, Tesla is now looking to hire roughly 800 new workers in key areas.
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The company has recently posted a plethora of job positions for its artificial intelligence and robotics sector, which is an area it made cuts to earlier this year.
According to a recent Bloomberg analysis, Tesla posted at least 25 new jobs related to self-driving development, and 30 new jobs that are focused on developing the company’s Tesla Bot, or Optimus, which is a humanoid robot. In addition, Tesla is also ramping up hiring in its energy, service and sales sectors.
When Musk announced Tesla’s layoffs in April, he blamed the job cuts on “rapid growth,” according to an email sent to employees.
“Over the years, we have grown rapidly with multiple factories scaling around the globe,” wrote Musk in the email. “With this rapid growth there has been duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas.”
Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk gestures while introducing the newly unveiled all-electric battery-powered Tesla Cybertruck at Tesla Design Center in Hawthorne, California on Nov. 21, 2019.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/Getty Images
Tesla had a big decline in vehicle sales
The move came after the company revealed that during the first-quarter of 2024, it faced a 8.5% decline in vehicle sales compared to the same time period last year.
A few weeks after announcing the layoffs, Musk fired Tesla’s 500-member Supercharger team and cut the company’s summer internship program, which made many students very unhappy.
It later appeared that the CEO began having second thoughts as he reportedly rehired most members of the Supercharger team in May, and positions for Tesla’s fall internship program began appearing on the company’s career page.
Tesla’s recent boost in hiring in its AI and robotics sector comes at a time when it reportedly delayed the unveiling of its self-driving robotaxi vehicle from August to October.
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Musk also said during a recent earnings call that Tesla should be thought of as an “AI or robotics company” and not just one that develops electric vehicles.
Tesla is expected to unveil its second-quarter earnings for 2024 on July 23. Ahead of the report’s release, the company revealed that it delivered 443,956 vehicles during the second quarter, which is a 4.8% decrease from what it delivered during the same quarter in 2023.
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