Data center frenzy is spurring a jobs boomlet for blue-collar workers

Source Domain: www.cbsnews.com

Exactly how artificial intelligence will shake up the U.S. job market won’t be certain for years. In the short term, the rapid buildout of data centers powering the rise of artificial intelligence is creating a boomlet in blue-collar jobs even as some companies invest in AI and axe white-collar roles.

For now, most of the employment opportunities spawned by the installation of data centers are construction jobs, experts told CBS News, noting that such jobs are temporary.

Other job gains stemming from the ramp-up in data center construction will have a more limited impact, according to Ben Zweig, a labor economist and CEO of Revelio Labs, a provider of workforce intelligence.

“They are pretty sparsely populated,” he told CBS News.

Data centers typically require relatively few full-time workers to operate, like the server farms that power broadband internet services.

“Roles data centers create for long-term maintenance aren’t huge in volume,” added Revelio Labs chief economist Lisa Simon. “They are a much more capital-intensive than labor-intensive undertaking.”

Trillion-dollar boom?

Technology companies are pouring billions into building data centers across the U.S., with spending on the facilities estimated to reach as much as $7 trillion by 2030, according to McKinsey.

The U.S. has roughly 4,000 existing data centers, while some 3,000 more have been announced or are under construction, according to Apollo Global Management.

This investment increases demand for construction workers, as well as data technicians, electricians, HVAC specialists and maintenance personnel needed to support operations.

U.S. data centers in total are expected to generate 4.7 million temporary construction jobs, according to a 2025 report from the American Edge Project, a policy advocacy group formed by Meta that promotes tech industry interests. The group also projected that data centers would create roughly 697,000 permanent jobs to operate and manage such…

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