Andrew Schaap is CEO and Board Member of Aligned Data Centers.
Want to see the future of the U.S. economy? It’s unfolding today in Abilene, Texas.
There, on an 875-acre site, the Stargate consortium led by OpenAI is building a massive data center campus. Once its eight data halls are complete, this complex will host as many as 400,000 Nvidia GPUs.
None of that would happen without thousands of electricians, carpenters, construction laborers, plumbers and other skilled tradespeople, who have triggered an economic boom in the city of 130,000. When the campus is up and running, it will create hundreds of local jobs for technicians in operations and maintenance.
Similar scenes are unfolding across the U.S. This year, a record 4,750 data centers are expected to be under construction in primary markets alone. Our company has several in the works, including a 27-acre campus in Mansfield, Texas. These projects are sparking a resurgence in the skilled trades—if the industry can keep up with demand.
Data centers are the backbone of the digital economy, powering AI and other high-performance computing. But our industry can’t grow without the tradespeople and technicians who build those facilities and operate them. Right now, there’s a critical shortage.
If we don’t fix this problem, the risks are huge. The window of opportunity is closing not just on hundreds of thousands of great jobs but also on the U.S.’s competitiveness in AI.
Fortunately, the data center industry is taking steps to build its pipeline of skilled tradespeople, with influential voices in the trades and policymakers taking notice. Here’s why the U.S. is on the cusp of a skilled trades renaissance, and what it will take to get us there.
The Skilled Trades Emergency
Everyone keeps talking about the AI economy, and for good reason. Through 2032, generative AI could boost the U.S.’s GDP by $1 trillion, more than the entire construction industry.
But amid all that chatter, the enormous demand for tradespeople to build data centers often gets overlooked. From 2022 through 2032, annual recruiting for critical trades roles could be more than 20 times the projected increase in net new jobs—roughly 584,000 versus a mere 26,500. With five tradespeople retiring for every two who replace them, it’s no wonder data center providers are facing a hiring crunch.
For our industry, mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) workers are especially hard to find. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which offered tax credits for electric vehicles and clean energy production, further increased competition with carmakers and solar and wind power companies vying for talent.
Demand for critical facilities technicians (CFTs)—whose jobs often combine hands-on work with tech skills—is urgent, too. Maintaining one cooling system at a data center can require four technicians (paywall). Today, the U.S. heating and air-conditioning industry has 425,000 workers. But to keep up with demand, it will need 500,000 more people over the next decade.
Jim Farley gets it. The Ford CEO recently highlighted the shortage of trade workers and the opportunity for them to build and service AI data centers.
Kickstarting The Skilled Trades Renaissance
So, what’s standing in the way of a skilled trades revival, and how can the data center industry reenergize its skilled trades pipeline?
For too long, trades careers have taken a backseat to software engineering and other tech jobs, in the belief that knowledge work was a better choice. The education system has also enabled that shift. Although the tide is turning (subscription required), there’s still a misconception that the trades are low-paying, dead-end jobs.
Dispelling that myth starts with raising public awareness, early and often. Our company regularly visits high schools to educate students about the skilled trades and other career opportunities in the data center industry.
Luckily, public perceptions of the trades are changing for the better. One in three Americans now recommends trade school over college for high school graduates.
These schools are a key source of talent for data center providers. We often hire alums whose skills make them ideally suited to becoming CFTs in a setting that demands operational excellence. Members of our operations teams, whose roles include responding to alarms, handling maintenance and supporting customers, participate in an in-house training program that earns them job-specific qualifications within six months.
Increasingly, postsecondary institutions are offering programs for data center technicians. For example, Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) has a one-year certificate and a two-year degree in data center operations. In 2022, we recruited a NOVA grad. Her salary is now north of $90,000, in a job category where median pay jumped more than 40% between 2021 and 2024.
When it comes to MEP workers, forecasting demand is one of the best ways to build a talent pipeline. In any market we enter, we do our homework by talking to the local labor force about our project so we know which skilled trades are in short supply. We’ve also forged partnerships with general contractors who can bring in workers from other locations where there’s less demand for their services.
Given how quickly the U.S. needs to get thousands of data centers online, homegrown talent is only part of the solution. We also need to encourage legal immigration, one area where policymakers and industry can work together.
Winning The AI Arms Race
For communities across the country, having skilled tradespeople build and maintain data centers in their backyard comes with major upside. In addition to creating high-paying jobs that boost the local economy and tax base, the “data center effect” helps rejuvenate towns and cities, often by redeveloping derelict brownfield sites.
But ultimately, the economic impact of fostering a skilled trades renaissance will be felt on a much larger scale. After all, ensuring that the U.S. has enough skilled tradespeople is one of the keys to winning the AI arms race. Without those workers, we simply can’t build the data centers we need to stay competitive in today’s world. That’s why the industry should prioritize advancing the skilled trades.
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