NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — President-elect Donald Trump is claiming another victory: Sprint will bring back 5,000 jobs to the U.S.
“They’re taking them from other countries. They’re bringing them back to the United States,” Trump said Wednesday outside one of his Florida resorts. “A nice change.”
Sprint confirmed the news in a statement saying the telecom company would “create or bring back to America” 5,000 jobs, mostly in customer care and sales. The announcement comes only a month after Trump helped get Carrier to keep 800 jobs in Indiana.
“We are excited to work with President-elect Trump and his administration to do our part to drive economic growth and create jobs in the U.S.,” said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure. He called it “critical” for business and government to work together.
Earlier this year, however, Sprint cut 2,500 jobs at its call centers to save money.
On top of the Sprint jobs, Trump celebrated that “a new company” called OneWeb would hire 3,000 people. In total, Trump is taking credit now for about 9,000 jobs created or saved.
Trump has vowed to be the “greatest jobs president that God ever created.” He campaigned on saving U.S. jobs and jump starting the economy.
“Companies are not going to leave the United States anymore without consequences,” Trump said when he visited Carrier on December 1.
OneWeb is a Florida startup that aims to provide Internet access to everyone from small satellites orbiting the Earth. The firm came to national attention after a Japanese firm, SoftBank, invested over $1 billion in it earlier this month.
“These will be lots of skilled manufacturing jobs,” Greg Wyler, CEO of OneWeb told CNNMoney, adding it was “nice to get a mention” from Trump.
He said OneWeb plans to add the new jobs over the next four years. As an American entrepreneur, Wyler said high taxes are the biggest hurdle businessmen like him face. He hopes Trump lowers the tax rates.
The jobs the president-elect heralded Wednesday were actually announced already. In early December, Masayoshi “Masa” Son, the CEO of SoftBank, stood by Trump and promised to invest billions in the U.S. and create 50,000 jobs. Sprint and OneWeb confirmed that these jobs are part of that 50,000 vow, since SoftBank has made significant investments in both companies.
In early December, Trump claimed that Softbank would not have invested in the U.S. if Hillary Clinton had won the election.
“Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!” Trump tweeted at the time. But SoftBank was making moves in the U.S. already, including talking to OneWeb before the election.
