Tesla is bucking the trend among tech companies when it comes to job creation in 2022.
While tech giants like Google, Meta, Microsoft and Twitter laid off tens of thousands of employees last year to save money in anticipation of the coming recession, Tesla added nearly 29,000 new employees in 2022, a 22 percent increase over the previous year.
In June 2022, Tesla CEO Musk said in an email to company executives that the company would need to cut about 10 percent of its full-time salaried workforce (nearly 10,000 employees) and suspend global hiring due to a “terrible feeling” about the current U.S. economy, but that the number of hourly workers was still expected to grow. Musk later said, however, that the total headcount would be reduced by 3-3.5 percent, not 10 percent.
As it turns out, Tesla hired far more people than it furloughed last year.
Tesla’s latest Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows the company’s global full-time workforce at 127,855 at the end of 2022, up 28,565 from 2021. 99,290 employees at the end of 2021, compared with 70,757 at the end of 2020. The rapid growth in the number of employees also reflects Tesla’s growth momentum in the automotive and energy sectors.
According to Tesla, “Our greatest asset is our people, and we continue to attract the best talent with a competitive compensation and benefits package that begins with ownership. We offer employees the opportunity to earn equity during their employment and share in Tesla’s success. As of December 31, 2022, we and our subsidiaries had 127,855 full-time employees worldwide, an increase of 29,000 year-over-year.”
Tesla’s main business, and the company continues to add new workers to keep up with the increased pace of car production. The automaker delivered 1.3 million vehicles last year and expects to deliver at least 1.8 million by 2023, meaning Tesla will need to continue to increase production to reach that goal.
