Walmart to boost U.S. job count by 10,000

Retail giant is latest to emphasize commitment to American workers

Retail giant Walmart said Tuesday it will create 10,000 new retail jobs in the U.S. this year, the latest American company to promote its domestic-focused hiring and investment ahead of Friday’s transfer of power from President Obama to President-elect Donald Trump.

The new Walmart hires will work at soon-to-be-opened stores, expanded existing stores and e-commerce services, the company said Tuesday.

In addition, Walmart said an estimated 24,000 construction jobs will support its plans to open new stores and remodel existing ones.

“With a presence in thousands of communities and a vast supplier network, we know we can play an important role in supporting and creating American jobs,” Dan Bartlett, Walmart’s executive vice president for corporate affairs, said in a statement.

The low-price retailer pays its workers about $9 per hour to $24.70 per hour, according to a year-ago press release announcing 2016 pay hikes for employees that went into effect last February. The average wage for fulltime workers was $13.38 per hour and $10.58 per hour, on average, for part-time workers, according to a Walmart press release.

Walmart, which employs 1.5 million U.S. workers, is the latest American company to go on the public relations offensive and emphasize its commitment to U.S. workers since Trump won the presidential election in November. The billionaire businessman has stressed via tweets and public statements his preference for U.S. firms to boost investment and create more jobs in the U.S. rather than set up shop in cheaper locales around the globe.

“Companies (are) getting in front of the shape of things to come, and that is Trump will think USA first at all times; so politics matter to these compa- nies,” says Gary Kaltbaum, president of Kaltbaum Capital Management.

“Politically, it puts them ‘in favor’ with the new administration while creating jobs here.”

The list of companies stressing their commitment to the U.S. is growing.

General Motors, for example, announced Tuesday that it will invest an additional $1 billion in U.S. manufacturing, on top of the $21 billion it has invested in U.S. operations since 2009. In a state- ment, GM said a “combination of 1,500 new and retained jobs are tied to the new investments.”

The moves by Walmart and GM follow last week’s announcement by online retailer Amazon .com that it plans to create more than 100,000 U.S. jobs in the next 18 months.

Earlier in January, automaker Ford said it was canceling plans to build a new plant in Mexico and instead would make a $700 million investment in Michigan, creating 700 new jobs in the U.S. And in November, air conditioner maker Carrier announced a deal to keep roughly 1,000 jobs in Indianapolis after nixing plans to move jobs to Mexico.

Walmart’s job announcement follows the retailer’s decision in January 2016 to announce the closing of 154 poor-performing U.S. stores, which affected 10,000 workers. And in September, the company said it would eliminate 7,000 store accounting and invoicing positions as the company moved to automate those processes but said workers would be offered positions elsewhere in its stores.

Walmart also said Tuesday that it would open 160 new “training Academies around the country” and provide “specialty training ” for more than 225,000 of its workers. The retailer also is planning $6.8 billion in capital investments in the U.S. in the coming fiscal year.

Longer term, Walmart reiterated a commitment made in 2013 to purchase an additional $250 billion in American-made, grown, assembled and sourced products through 2023.