Private companies do much better work in creating jobs, says Trump

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said private companies were doing a much better work in creating jobs in the country.

"Companies can train so much better than governments. Governments get into that, and they really do not have a clue as to what they are doing. And it costs a lot of money," Trump said at a White House event to celebrate one year of the Pledge to American Workers.

An initiative of the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, the Pledge to America's Workers is a call for business and industry to create more and better jobs for US citizens by imparting education and skills to American students and workers.

In the last one year, it has helped some 12 million people, Trump said.

"Companies have stepped up to the plate, and so many companies have done thousands and thousands of jobs and the training for these jobs," he added.

"It is not like the old days, where you go in and you do something, that is much simpler today, with new technology and computers and all of the different things you have to know. This is just not something that you can easily step into," Trump said.

According to Ivanka Trump, who is also the advisor to the president, the campaign was borne out of the tremendous economic resurgence happening across the country.

Noting that today, more Americans were working than ever before, she said virtually every single demographic was achieving historically low unemployment rates.

"There are 7.3 million open jobs. Wages are surging. With an unemployment rate at 3.7 per cent, it is nearing the lowest rate in half-a-century," she said, adding that in the second quarter, 74 per cent of the new jobs were secured by Americans outside of the workforce on the sidelines of the economy.

"The pledge is a commitment to 12 million American lives improved. Twelve million individual opportunities that will impact families and whole communities," Ivanka said.

Vice President Mike Pence said it was astonishing to think that on the one-year anniversary of the Pledge to America's Workers, 300 US companies were committing to train people for 12 million good-paying American jobs.

"That is an astonishing accomplishment and it is a tribute to all the great companies represented here," he said.

Toyota has announced a USD 13 billion commitment to investment in North America, which is going to create 600 new jobs, Ivanka said on the occasion.