Watch the entire exclusive interview with President Barack Obama on CNN's "New Day" Friday at 6 a.m. ET and "The Lead With Jake Tapper" at 4 p.m. ET

(CNN) - The White House has secured commitments from some of the nation's largest companies, signing on to a plan to boost hiring of the long-term unemployed.

"What we have done is to gather together 300 companies, just to start with, including, some of the top 50 companies in the country, companies like Walmart, and Apple, Ford and others, to say let's establish best practices," President Barack Obama told CNN chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper in an exclusive interview.