WAL-MART Stores Inc. and General Motors Co. yesterday became the latest companies to win praise from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for adding U.S. jobs and investment, even though much of their plans were previously announced.

    Wal-Mart will add 10,000 jobs this year while General Motors announced US$1 billion in investment that would create 1,500 U.S. jobs.

    Trump, who takes office Friday, has repeatedly singled out and criticized U.S. companies across industries for not doing more to keep jobs in the United States and has put pressure on them to hire more U.S. workers.

    “Thank you to General Motors and Walmart for starting the big jobs push back into the United States!” Trump said in a tweet yesterday reacting to the moves.

    Bringing manufacturing back to the United States was a major theme in Trump’s presidential campaign. In a separate tweet he said, “With all of the jobs I am bringing back into the United States [even before taking office], with all of the new auto plants coming back into our country ... I believe the people are seeing ‘big stuff’.”

    Announcements by Wal-Mart and General Motors come as both companies are cutting jobs in the country, and their hiring, which was planned for some time, represent a small increase in their total U.S. work force.

    German drugs and agriculture group Bayer and U.S. seeds company Monsanto Co. also pledged yesterday to maintain its more than 9,000 U.S. jobs and add 3,000 new U.S. high-tech positions. Both companies announced plans to create thousands of high-tech U.S. jobs previously when they announced their merger.

    Some of America’s largest companies, including General Motors, Lockheed Martin Corp. and United Technologies Corp. have been publicly rebuked by Trump on Twitter. (SD-Agencies)