The fourth largest mobile operator in the US, Sprint recently announced that it aims to bring back to America 5,000 jobs as part of broader U.S. hiring plans previously announced by Japan-based parent SoftBank Group. The company anticipates these jobs will support a variety of functions across the organization including its Customer Care and Sales teams but could also involve any area of operations.
Sprint said it will begin discussions immediately with its business partners, states and cities to determine the right locations in the U.S. to create these jobs. The company expects to fulfill this commitment by the end of its fiscal year 2017 and will provide additional details when they are available. Sprint's current employment stands at 30,000, down by 1,000 from the 31,000 it counted as of March 31, 2015.
The latest announcement comes after a series of initiatives that involve strengthening its work force in the US. Recently Sprint said its prepaid wireless business Virgin Mobile would set up a separate headquarters in Kansas City where it will hire more than 50 employees. In May 2016, Sprint announced it had formed its own in-house advertising agency called Yellow Fan Studios where it it had hired about 30 and planned to add 30 more.
Last year, Sprint also said it would return jobs to its Overland Park campus by renewing only parts of its 2009 network management contract with Ericsson. That contract moved 2,000 Sprint headquarters employees over to Ericsson, and 6,000 employees in total.
Marcelo Claure, CEO, Sprint
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. We believe it is critical for business and government to partner together to create more job opportunities in the U.S. and ensure prosperity for all Americans.
