Tesla’s 2,500-acre manufacturing center in Austin, Texas, tripled its workforce last year, according to the company’s annual compliance report filed with county officials. Bloomberg first reported on the news.
The report filed with the Travis County Economic Development Program shows that Tesla increased its workforce in Austin from just 3,523 temporary and permanent employees in 2021 to 12,277 by the end of 2022. Bloomberg reports that just over half of the workers in Tesla reside in the county, with the average full-time employee earning a salary of at least $47,147. Outside of the Tesla factory, the average wage for an Austin worker is $68,060, according to ziprecruiter data.
TechCrunch was unable to acquire a copy of the report, so it’s unclear if those workers are all full-time. If so, Tesla has hired far more full-time employees than it currently has. According to the agreement Between Tesla and Travis County, the company is required to create 5,001 new full-time jobs over the next four years.
The contract also calls for Tesla to invest about $1.1 billion in the county over the next five years. Tesla’s compliance report shows the automaker last year invested $5.81 billion in Gigafactory Texas, which officially launched a year ago at a “Cyber Rodeo” event. In January, Tesla notified regulators that it plans to invest another $770 million in a factory expansion to include a battery cell test site and a cathode and drive unit manufacturing site. With that investment will come more jobs.
Tesla’s choice to move its headquarters to Texas and build a gigafactory there has helped the state lead the nation in job growth. The automaker builds its Model Y crossover there and also plans to build its Cybertruck in Texas. Giga Texas will also be a model for sustainable manufacturing, CEO Elon Musk said. Last year, Tesla completed the first phase of what will become “the world’s largest rooftop solar installation,” according to the report, according to Bloomberg. Tesla has started with the second phase of installation, but there are already reports of power see the roof from space. The goal is to generate 27 megawatts of power.
Musk also promised to turn the site into an “ecological paradise,” complete with a boardwalk and a hiking/biking trail that will be open to the public. There haven’t been many updates on that front, and locals are concerned that the site is actually more of a environmental nightmare which has caused noise and water pollution. The site, located at the intersection of State Highway 130 and Harold Green Road in east Austin, is along the Colorado River and could create a climate catastrophe if the river floods its banks.
The Tesla gigafactory site has also historically been home to low-income households and has a large population of Spanish-speaking residents. It is unclear if the jobs at the factory reflect the population demographics of the community in which you reside.
