Super bad feeling about the economy, says Elon Musk in company email

Elon Musk said he has a "super bad feeling" about the economy in an email written to Tesla executives. The message said he wants to cut 10% of the jobs in the company. Covid-19 lockdowns in China have affected Tesla's production.

On Tuesday, Musk had sent an email demanding all Tesla employees spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office every week. The demand had met with pushback in Germany. The electric carmaker currently employs around 100,000. The CEO told employees to return to the office or leave the company. He said those who don't show up will be considered resigned, reported Reuters.

Musk's warning about the economy was in an email titled 'pause all hiring worldwide'. At the time, Tesla had about 5,000 job postings on LinkedIn from sales in Tokyo, engineers in Berlin, and deep learning scientists in Palo Alto.

Jason Stomel, the founder of tech talent agency Cadre, alleged the changes at Tesla is a disguise. The company can get rid of people with attrition without having to fire people. He added that Elon Musk knows there is a percentage of employees who are not going to come back. Such an occurrence is cheaper because severance is not needed, reported Reuters.

The world's richest man had earlier said a global recession is a good thing because it will force some negative value companies to shut down and stop draining resources. "It has been raining money on fools for too long. Some bankruptcies need to happen," said the billionaire entrepreneur.

His warning of recession is being considered the most high-profile forecast in the automobile industry. The demand for electric vehicles including Tesla Cars is increasing even amid the pandemic.