Tesla to lay off 316 NY workers amid global cuts
Tesla is planning to lay off more than 300 workers at its Buffalo, New York, site as Elon Musk’s company seeks to slash its global workforce amid highly publicized revenue drops, vehicle recalls and price cutting.
In a notice filed Friday with the New York State Department of Labor and made public Tuesday, Tesla indicated that five more employees are expected to be laid off beginning Aug. 1 at the Buffalo plant.
The filing was posted under the WARN Act, a U.S. labor law that requires employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 days notification in advance of planned closings or mass layoffs to protect workers and their families. Tesla had already indicated in prior filings that more than 300 employees in Buffalo would be targeted for layoffs this summer. According to the latest WARN notice, there are 2,025 employees at the plant.
The news comes a week after Tesla laid off two executives and nearly 500 employees on its EV charging team.
The tech giant announced in midApril that it would lay off 10% of its global workforce.
“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,” Musk said in a memo obtained by Electrek and CNBC.
He cited the need to eliminate “duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas” amid the company’s rapid growth.
Tesla also is planning to lay off nearly 2,700 workers at its Austin, Texas, factory in June, along with 2,735 workers in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The layoffs come amid price cutting, a fight over a potential $56 billion pay package for Musk, and an April company earnings call where a drop in yearover-year revenue was announced for the first time since 2020.
In the same tumultuous week, the company recalled nearly 4,000 Cybertrucks over a defect with the accelerator that caused it to get stuck when pressed, increasing the risk of a crash. The recall covers all the trucks Tesla has sold since the vehicle reached market in November.