Tesla on Wednesday yanked thousands of open positions in North America from its official careers page, bringing the total number of open roles at the electric vehicle giant down to just three from 3,400.
As of Thursday, Elon Musk’s Austin, Texas-based auto firm boasted just three positions on the job board on its website and on LinkedIn, Quartz earlier reported.
The roles were all to join Tesla’s manufacturing teams in either Texas; Fremont, Calif.; or Sparks, Nev. — the carmaker’s three major factory hubs in the US.
The full-time positions, however, were actually internship programs with the opportunity for employment coming at the end of the period.
The listings ask for entry-level applicants to join a “manufacturing development program,” where “program participants will complete a rigorous 4-6-week scholarship in Advanced Manufacturing, apply skills as a Production Associate at Gigafactory Nevada following course completion and earn a Production Operator Certification after 2000 hours of on the job learning,” according to the job description.
Upon completion of the program, there’s an “opportunity to transition into a full-time Production Associate” at a Tesla factory.
The listings did not include compensation for the duration of the program, but said that healthcare plans through Aetna, including dental and vision coverage would be provided with options that include $0 payroll deductions.
The three open intern positions are a far cry from the 3,400 postings at Tesla that were being offered across the United States, Mexico, Canada and Puerto Rico as of May 1, according to Quartz.
The apparent hiring freeze comes after a wave of job cuts that CEO Musk described as “hard core,” which included six executive exits.
The automaker announced it would cut more than 10% of its 140,000 employees in April, but people inside the company told Bloomberg they expected that more than 20,000 people may be asked to leave.
Tesla has also recently disbanded its EV charging department, and as recently as Monday, the company reportedly laid off staff from the software, service and engineering departments, according to tech publication Electrek, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The company disclosed in notices last month that it will lay off more than 6,700 employees across its locations in Texas, California, Nevada and New York.
Tesla disclosed last month that it expects to book more than $350 million in costs in the second quarter for the mass layoffs. The job cuts also included an exodus of top executives, including Drew Baglino, Rohan Patel, Rebecca Tinucci and Daniel Ho.
The EV firm has been under pressure from dropping sales and an intensifying price war among automakers as elevated interest rates have slowed the adoption of EVs.
The company is looking to focus on autonomous driving software, robotaxis and its humanoid robot Optimus, and Musk could be cutting its spending on certain teams to preserve cash for those projects, analysts have said.
Representatives for Tesla did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
