Elon Musk informed Tesla's executives on Thursday that the company must reduce its workforce by 10% and cease hiring globally, Reuters reports.

As of the end of 2021, there were 99,290 employees working for the electric carmaker. The company has also been no stranger to layoffs, having laid off 7% of its workforce in 2019 and 9% in 2018. In April 2020, employees were also furloughed.

Musk was reported to have cited 'super bad feelings' about the economy as the reason for his action.

In response to President Joe Biden's question on Friday about Musk's economic predictions, Biden noted Ford's decision to build a billion new electric vehicles and hire 6,000 new employees in the Midwest.

'Good luck on his trip to the moon,' Biden said of Musk, referring to the CEO's spaceflight ambitions through SpaceX.

Musk tweeted his response to Biden's comment: 'Thanks Mr. President!' with a link to a NASA press release about SpaceX being selected to build a lunar landing vehicle.

The Tesla CEO's reported economic pronouncement comes after he stated that Tesla employees who wish to work remotely must put in a minimum of 40 hours a week at the office in an email that was leaked earlier this week.

Tesla's shares dropped about 8.5% on Friday. Tesla CEO Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion cleared the US Federal Trade Commission on Friday, even as the economy remains gloomy.

There was no one available to comment since Tesla no longer maintains an active public relations department.