WASHINGTON \u2014
Sprint said Friday that the 5,000 U. S. jobs the telecom firm recently pledged to create over the next 15 months are not part of an April 2015 announcement for a different 5,000 jobs.
The confusion\u2014which prompted the company\u2019s chief Marcelo Claure to take to Twitter in defense of the plan\u2014arose after Donald Trump announced Sprint\u2019s jobs commitment this week.
The president-elect claimed credit for the deal as well as an announcement earlier this month by the satellite broadband firm OneWeb of 3,000 new jobs over the next four years.
However, both new job commitments are part of a broader plan announced in October by SoftBank\u2014which owns 80% of Sprint\u2014to invest tens of billions of dollars in technology globally. The OneWeb project is the result of a $1.2 billion investment from the group.
SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son met Trump earlier this month, pledging to invest $50 billion in the U. S. economy and create 50,000 jobs over an unspecified time.
That prompted Trump to take credit for job creation even before he assumes office in January, praising what he called \u201cthe spirit and the hope\u201d his election generated.
A Sprint spokesperson said on Friday that the 5,000 new jobs announced this week \u201care not related to our previous announcement about jobs and our Direct 2 You program reported on in April 2015. The announcements are unrelated.\u201d
Unlike last year\u2019s plan, the newer one is \u201cpart of Masa\u2019s 50,000 jobs commitment and it was intended to show that we are now working to help fulfill the commitment.\u201d
Claure followed Trump\u2019s example, taking to Twitter Thursday following reports that the latest Sprint job pledge is not new.
\u201cStop speculating,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has NOTHING to do with previously announced @sprint initiatives.\u201d
\u201cThe 5,000 jobs are NEW jobs that @sprint is creating or bringing back to the U. S. Great news for the country.\u201d
Sprint, which announced 2,500 layoffs in January, said the 5,000 positions will be created or brought back from overseas by the end of its 2017 fiscal year, which ends in March 2018. It has not yet decided where the jobs will be created, saying only that they will be spread across the organization.
Claure\u2014who held a fundraiser for Trump\u2019s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in September, calling Trump \u201ctoo risky\u201d\u2014said in the announcement this week that \u201cwe 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.\u201d
\u00a9 2016 AFP<\/p>\n