The total workforce at Tesla’s factory outside Austin, Texas shrunk dramatically last year as the company suffered its second straight year of declining sales, according to a compliance report spotted by Austin American-Statesman.
Tesla went from employing 21,191 people at the factory in 2024 to 16,506 workers in 2025, a drop of 22%. That’s despite the company’s global workforce growing from 125,665 employees in 2024 to 134,785 employees in 2025, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
It’s not clear which teams were most affected by Tesla scaling back its workforce at the plant. But the company has become one of the largest employers in the Austin area since it opened the factory in 2022. CEO Elon Musk also relocated Tesla’s headquarters to the factory in 2021 before it opened. The company has invested more than $6.3 billion in the facility to date, according to the new report.