As per recent financial reports from US automakers, the leading electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tesla lags in the amount of revenue generated for each of its employees. This information comes at a time when CEO Elon Musk is reportedly pondering layoffs. As per data, Tesla reported almost USD 97 billion in revenue last year, equivalent to just under USD 690,000 for each of its over 140,000 employees.
Compared to this, General Motor generated over USD 1 million in revenue for each of its 163,000 employees last year while Ford Motor brought in USD 937,000 for each of its 173,000 workers. This made investors worry as they became increasingly worried about soft demand for EVs and increased competition, especially after Tesla warned of “notably lower” sales growth this year.
With Tesla increasingly focused on costs at this point, the company has asked managers whether each of their employees’ positions were critical. This development has stoked layoff fears. The company’s stocks gained over 1% on Thursday, but the company has lost over USD 180 billion in market capitalization so far in 2024. It is now valued at USD 603 billion, just ahead of chipmaker Broadcom at USD 601 billion.
Tesla’s gross margins, which was once the envy of other automakers, took a hit in December quarter to their lowest since 2019. In the same quarter, its revenue rose 3% to USD 25.17 billion, its slowest pace of growth in more than three years. While Tesla’s revenue per worker lagged GM and Ford last year, it improved over 2022, when it was USD 637,000. Tesla increased its global workforce by about 10% in 2023, according to a recent filing.
In another development, Wall Street’s tech-related heavyweights have laid off hundreds of thousands of workers over the past two years, shedding some of the jobs they added during the coronavirus pandemic. In many cases they have continued to grow their sales. For example, Meta Platforms last week reported a 25% surge in December-quarter revenue while simultaneously cutting costs and expenses by 8% after eliminating more than 21,000 jobs since late 2022.