How many jobs does a data center create, and what kind?

Data centers create thousands of jobs. The Northwest Indiana economic impact study estimates that at 1 gigawatt scale, direct construction plus regional supply-chain activity would support an average of about 14,651 job-years over a three-year build, anchored in a 75% local-labor retention assumption drawn from negotiated project labor agreements on announced NWI hyperscale projects.

The same NWI analysis estimates about 300 permanent on-site staff at a 1 GW campus, plus contract and vendor personnel directly engaged in operations (equipment maintenance, on-site utility staffing, network operations).

Another study conducted in Northwest Indiana found that in addition to jobs created for the data centers, there would be 20,000 job-years generated during the three-year build. After the build is complete, approximately 3,000 further jobs would be supported. The economic activity ripples across nearly 90 different industries, from electricians and HVAC technicians to fiber installers, engineers, security firms, and equipment repair shops. In short, a single data center touches far more of the local economy than just the people working inside it.