Tesla is laying off more than 3,300 workers in California and more than 2,600 workers in Texas, the company announced shortly after reporting a 9 percent drop in revenue.
The electric vehicle maker revealed its workforce reduction plans in notices filed under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, according to multiple reports.
Notices under the WARN Act, which require employers to provide a 60-day notice before layoffs, were filed with the California and Texas workforce authorities on April 22.
In California, Tesla said, the company is laying off about 2,267 workers across multiple Fremont locations and an additional 486 employees across five Palo Alto sites, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
An additional 515 employees will be laid off across eight locations in Lathrop, which is located in San Joaquin County, where Tesla operates a battery factory. Another 64 jobs will be cut in Burbank.
The Elon Musk-owned company said the layoffs will begin on June 14, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Despite the newly announced job cuts, Mr. Musk touted Tesla’s job creation efforts in California in a post on the social media platform X on April 23, stating that the company has “now created over 30,000 manufacturing jobs in California.”
Tesla Revenue Takes a Hit
The automaker employs about 22,000 people in Austin.Layoffs will take place over a two-week period, according to the notice.
Tesla didn’t respond to a request for further comment by press time.
The move comes after Tesla reported a 9 percent drop in revenue compared to a year ago, with the company confirming revenue of $21.3 billion in the first quarter, which is down from $23.33 billion a year earlier and missed analysts’ expectations.
Analysts on average had estimated $22.15 billion, according to LSEG data.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s average revenue per vehicle delivered in the quarter fell by nearly 5 percent year over year, to $44,926 a vehicle, reflecting the impact of repeated price cuts.
Net profit in the first quarter stood at $1.13 billion, compared with $2.51 billion a year earlier.
Tesla’s shares were up by nearly 2 percent in after-hours trading, but are down by more than 11 percent this year.
The layoffs also come after Tesla announced last week that it is cutting 285 jobs in Buffalo, New York, as part of its workforce reduction plans.
Tesla Slashing Global Workforce
New York houses Tesla’s labeling team for its Autopilot driver assistance software that makes fast-charging equipment.The industrialist CEO said in an internal memo to workers that the automaker plans to slash at least 14,000 jobs, although he did not provide details about which departments would be impacted by the cuts.
In its December 2023 annual earnings, Tesla said it had 140,473 employees.
“Over the years, we have grown rapidly with multiple factories scaling around the globe,” Mr. Musk said in the memo. “With this rapid growth, there has been duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas.
“As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity.
“As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10 percent globally. There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done. This will enable us to be lean, innovative, and hungry for the next growth phase.”
That announcement came after Tesla said it had delivered just 386,810 vehicles in the first quarter, down 100,000 from its fourth quarter 2023 deliveries and marking a year-over-year sales drop.
It also marked the automaker’s first drop in deliveries since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted its operations.
