Walmart's Commitment To Support More Than 750,000 New American Jobs

(RTTNews) - Retail giant Walmart (WMT) announced plans to invest $350 billion over the next decade in products made, grown, or assembled in the United States.

The company estimates the investment to support more than 750,000 American jobs. It will also avoid an estimated 100 million metric tons of CO2 emissions by sourcing products closer to customers.

"More businesses are choosing to establish their manufacturing operations in the United States, and the result is more jobs for Americans - a lot more jobs," Walmart's President and CEO John Furner said.

"U.S. manufacturing really matters. It matters to our suppliers, to entrepreneurs and to the environment. It matters to our customers - more than 85% of which have said it's important for us to carry products made or assembled in the U.S. And most of all, because of the jobs it brings, it matters to American communities and the people who live in them," he added.

The investment will also support small businesses, diverse suppliers, and sellers who are based in the US, Furner said.

Walmart will focus on six priority categories: plastics, textiles, small electrical appliances, food processing, pharmaceutical, and medical supplies.

In 2013, Walmart had made a commitment to invest $250 billion in products made, grown or assembled in America by 2023.

Meanwhile, separately, Walmart on Tuesday announced it will raise its hourly wages to at least $15 per hour for workers located at the East and West coasts. Last month, the company said that on March 13 it will start paying 425,000 frontline workers an hourly wage ranging between $13 and $19 an hour. Walmart is the country's largest private employer with a U.S. workforce of 1.5 million people.