Elon Musk reportedly orders hiring freeze, 10 percent staff reduction at Tesla

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

According to the report, Musk told the executives that the company needed to cut its workforce by 10 percent. The company said in a filing that it had over 100,000 employees. Musk wrote in an email that he felt bad about the economy.

Widespread layoffs are not unusual for Musk and the company. The company cut hundreds of workers in October, nine percent of staff in June, and seven percent of staff in January, then slashed salaries and took employees off the job in April 2020. The report doesn't give any information about which departments may be impacted. Musk sent a company-wide email saying that for workers who didn't show up to the office, "we will assume you have resigned."

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The deal to buy Twitter is moving forward without margin loans taken out against Musk's stock in the company. Demand for electric cars is much higher than production, and the company reported over $3 billion in profits for the first quarter of this year. There have been shutdowns at the China gigafactory ofTesla. The China shutdowns will have a negative impact on delivery numbers this month, and cutting costs is a good idea.

"I don't think it's a demand issue," says @DivesTech about @elonmusk's "Super bad" outlook. "Clearly this is a much different Musk than we saw in mid-April.. and I think that's reflective in the stock in terms of everything we've seen in China." $TSLA pic.twitter.com/cBf2bJiSDM

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) June 3, 2022

The drag on Musk's finances is just one of the things that could affect his outlook. Over the last six months, Musk's favorite coin, Dogecoin, has lost 60 percent of its value. According to the last annual report, the fair market value of the company's holdings of the digital currency was $1.99 billion. At the time, the price was $46,224.39, and as of this writing, the price is $29,803.70, a drop of 35 percent.