President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team hailed Amazon’s plans to hire 100,000 new workers in the U.S. on Thursday and claimed Trump played a part in the tech giant’s move.
“The president-elect was pleased to play role in that decision,” incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said during a transition call.
“The announcement was made after the president-elect met with the heads of several other tech companies and urged to keep their jobs and production inside the United States. As you know Jeff Bezos was an integral part of that,” Spicer added.
Amazon was not immediately available for comment.
{mosads}The e-commerce company announced earlier Thursday that it is aiming to create 100,000 new jobs in the United States over the next 18 months.
“These jobs are not just in our Seattle headquarters or in Silicon Valley—they’re in our customer service network, fulfillment centers and other facilities in local communities throughout the country,” Bezos said in a statement.
“These new job opportunities are for people all across the country and with all types of experience, education and skill levels—from engineers and software developers to those seeking entry-level positions and on-the-job training,” the company added in a press release.
Their press release did not mention Trump or last month’s meeting between the president-elect and tech leaders.
Trump and Amazon have had a tense relationship at times.
During the campaign, Bezos aggressively criticized Trump. But since the election has been smoothing relations with the president-elect.
Amazon’s hiring spree is only the latest planned by a U.S. company as Trump prepares to take office.
Earlier in January, Ford announced that it was canceling plans to build a plant in Mexico and would offer 700 new jobs in the U.S. Dow Chemical, Carrier, IBM, SoftBank and OneWeb have all made similar announcements regarding hiring.
In many of those cases, Trump has taken credit for the new jobs, claiming that markets and companies are more confident in the economy since his election.
Amazon employs people in offices and centers across the country and in recent years has expanded its staffing in states including Texas, Illinois and Florida.
If the plans come to fruition, Amazon will expand its full-time workforce from its current 180,000 employees to 280,000 in 2018.
The Seattle-based company currently employs about 230,800 part-time and full-time workers according to 2015 estimates.
— Harper Neidig contributed.