Musk says Tesla headcount will increase

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday that the automotive company’s total headcount will increase over the next year, but specified that salaried staff should remain “fairly flat.”

Musk made the statement in reply to a user predicting that the company’s headcount would increase.

“Total headcount will increase, but salaried should be fairly flat,” Musk wrote.

The tweet comes after Reuters reported that Musk ordered Tesla executives in an email on Thursday to “pause all hiring worldwide.”

The news service added that Musk said in another email sent to employees on Friday that he was reducing salaried headcount by 10 percent because the company had become “overstaffed in many areas,” adding that “hourly headcount will increase.”

The billionaire reportedly said that he had a “super bad feeling” about the U.S. economy.

Tesla shares fell about 9 percent on Friday, according to The Associated Press noted.

Earlier last week, the Tesla CEO ordered the company’s employees to return to the office at least 40 hours per week or to “depart,” saying that “remote work is no longer acceptable”