Sprint Reverses Trend With Job-Creation Pledge

Overland Park-based Sprint today announced that it would commit to creating or bringing back to America 5,000 jobs by the end of its 2017 fiscal year. In a news release issued late this afternoon, the company said it expects those jobs to support varying functions across the organization, including its customer-care and sales teams. It said the company would immiedately launch  discussions with business partners, states and cities to determine the best locations in the U.S. for placing those workers.

“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.,” CEO Marcelo Claure said in the release. “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.”

 

The hires would snap a years-long trend of force reductions at Sprint, which just a few years ago was the region’s largest private-sector employer. But its struggles in the telecom sector and well-publicized customer losses saw the company reduce its Kansas City staff from more than 14,000 to roughly 7,000 by the end of 2016. Aggressive pricing programs, intense focus on improving the rate of customer churn and other inititiaves have stemmed the tide for the company, which had 60.2 million customes as of Sept. 30.