Tesla boss Elon Musk wants to cut about every tenth job.
In an internal email to executives on Thursday, available to the Reuters news agency, Musk writes that he has a "very bad feeling" about economic development.
The US electric car manufacturer must therefore reduce its workforce by around ten percent.
The e-mail was headed “Recruitment freeze”.
Tesla could not immediately be reached for comment.
It was only on Wednesday that Musk had warned all of the group's employees to return to the office from their home office.
Working from home is only acceptable if you have already been in the office at least 40 hours a week.
"The higher your position, the more visible you need to be," Musk wrote.
“That's why I lived in the factory so often so the employees could see me working alongside them.
If I hadn't done that, Tesla would have been bankrupt long ago.”
If someone doesn't show up, "we have to assume that person has left the company," the letter said without a friendly salutation, with the subject line "to be super clear."
Tesla shares have come under significant pressure following reports of potential job cuts.
The shares of the electric car manufacturer slipped back to below 700 euros on Xetra by more than 4 percent.
Most recently, they had recovered significantly from their low since summer 2021 at around 580 euros.