Wal-Mart to Create 10,000 U.S. Jobs in Nod to Trump
January 17 2017 - 5:59AM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Nassauer
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it plans to create about 10,000 U.S.
jobs this year, a sign that even the country's largest private
employer feels the need to tout American job growth ahead of
President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.
The jobs will come from previously planned store openings, store
expansions and new e-commerce services, the company said Tuesday.
The retailer said 24,000 additional construction jobs will be
supported by those efforts.
"With a presence in thousands of communities and a vast supplier
network, we know we play an important role in supporting and
creating American jobs," Dan Bartlett, Wal-Mart executive vice
president of corporate affairs, said in a press release.
The announcement is the latest in a string of public displays
from companies looking to head off criticism from the Trump
administration about U.S. job losses. Last week Amazon.com Inc.
promised to create 100,000 full-time jobs in the U.S. in the next
18 months mostly through expansion plans already in the works.
In the wake of tweets from Mr. Trump, some companies such as
Carrier Corp. and Ford Motor Co. reversed plans to shift some
manufacturing abroad. Others highlighted U.S. job growth efforts
under way before November. General Motors Co. this week is expected
to announce plans to invest at least $1 billion across several U.S.
factories, The Wall Street Journal reported.
With 1.5 million U.S. employees, Wal-Mart dwarfs other
employers. But as the company invests more in e-commerce and
improving existing stores, the retailer has pulled back on opening
new stores, historically the main driver of both sales and employee
growth at the firm.
The Bentonville, Ark., company has also been cutting staff and
restructuring its operations. It plans to eliminate about 1,000
corporate jobs before the month's end, people familiar with the
matter said last week.
In early 2016, Wal-Mart cut 10,000 store jobs after closing 154
U.S. locations and said 450 positions at its headquarters would be
eliminated. Another 7,000 back-office positions were cut from
stores later in the year.
Many of those employees were rehired in other open positions, a
Wal-Mart spokesman said, adding that there has been a net increase
in U.S. employees over the past year.
On Tuesday, Wal-Mart is expected to announce a round of grants
to six universities working on textile innovations aimed at
bringing back U.S. manufacturing in that sector. It has made
similar grants in previous years, without mentioning U.S. job
counts.
The company is expected to reiterate its 2013 pledge to buy an
additional $250 billion in American-made, grown, assembled and
sourced products through 2023.
It also plans to build 200 training academies by this summer to
teach retail management skills to more than 200,000 store
employees.
Write to Sarah Nassauer at sarah.nassauer@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 17, 2017 05:44 ET (10:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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