Third-party contractor Trigo licenses employees to Tesla in Austin.
AUSTIN, Texas — Editor’s note: This story initially reported that Tesla was laying off 50 employees. Instead, Trigo, a third-party contractor who licenses employees to Tesla, is instituting layoffs.
A third-party contractor that licenses employees to Tesla is laying off 50 employees based in Travis County, according to a Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification (WARN) Notice issued by the Texas Workforce Commission.
On it’s LinkedIn account, Trigo describes itself as a company that provides “solutions for the automotive, aerospace and other transport industries.”
The news of the layoffs comes as the Elon Musk-owned company has recently seen a 71% dip in profits, according to a report from ABC News.
One of the largest employers in the county, Tesla conducted widescale layoffs in 2024 when it cut nearly 2,700 workers at its Gigafactory in eastern Travis County. Those layoffs were part of a larger, global cost-cutting effort that saw the auto manufacturer cut roughly 14,000 jobs altogether, or about 10% of its workforce.
Musk and his companies have come under scrutiny in recent months, as the South African business tycoon has taken on an elevated role in the federal government while leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) within the Trump administration.
As Tesla’s stock has stumbled, a recent report from the Wall Street Journal claimed that Tesla’s board members began a search for someone to take over the role currently held by Musk. Musk, as well as Tesla’s chair Robyn Denholm, denied the report’s accuracy.
According to the WSJ report, some of Musk’s employees claimed they had not seen him in several months until a meeting in March. In April, he reportedly made clear his plans to spend more time with the company moving forward.
According to a poll conducted in late April by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, just 33% of U.S. adults have a favorable view of Musk, a number that represents a decrease from his 41% favorable rating in December 2024.
