{"id":18013,"date":"2026-07-14T08:48:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=18013"},"modified":"2026-07-14T08:48:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:48:27","slug":"the-economics-of-data-centers-creating-jobs-are-so-bad-that-they-sound-like-a-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/14\/the-economics-of-data-centers-creating-jobs-are-so-bad-that-they-sound-like-a-joke\/","title":{"rendered":"The Economics of Data Centers Creating Jobs Are So Bad That They Sound Like a Joke"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To go further, I think we’ll see H1-B visa holders with these jobs, as the big megacorps putting in these data centers love their foreign slave labor. H1-B visa holders know if they don’t keep their employer happy, they get sent back to their country of origin. To solve the data center problem, areas should take away the subsidies and collect full taxes. And also make sure they know they’ll be fully held responsible for any environmental issues they create, especially with the local water they’ll use in cooling systems. Meta just got in trouble in Cheyenne for polluting the sewage system<\/a> with bacteria from their cooling system, though their government shills hid it for months, with even the shill Wyoming Representative running cover…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/futurism.com\/future-society\/data-center-economics-job-labor-construction-ai<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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“The sweeping job and wage growth often promised during local recruitment efforts is unlikely to arrive on its own.”<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Wilkins<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins \/ Futurism. Source: Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Whenever big data center developers roll into town, their pitch ends up sounding something like this: hand over your land and your resources, throw in a decade of government subsidies, and we\u2019ll give your ailing little burg some jobs, tax revenue, and a shiny new facility to boost the local economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Not so fast, cowboy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In theory, more tax revenue means money for schools, roads, and first responders. In practice, states and counties are waving those taxes<\/a> in order to entice tech companies to set up shop \u2014 while existing campuses put major strain<\/a> on local communities. One analysis found that Georgia, Virginia, and Texas each lose over $1 billion<\/a> a year to state data center incentives, while at least fourteen states don\u2019t even disclose data center tax breaks in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The down-stream impacts don\u2019t really materialize either. Researchers at Georgia Tech found<\/a> that in rural areas, data centers typically employ fewer than 100 permanent workers and are likely to import specialized services from outside the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this can temporarily boost unemployment numbers, any broader, long-term impacts are not guaranteed and are highly dependent on local conditions. As the Georgia Tech researchers explain, \u201cthe sweeping job and wage growth often promised during local recruitment efforts is unlikely to arrive on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the jobs creation claim is where the pitch really falls apart. In Iowa, the Cedar Rapids Economic Development Center recently disclosed<\/a> that two ongoing data center projects \u2014 one for Google carrying a price tag of at least $576 million and another for Blackstone firm QTS starting at $750 million \u2014 are contractually required to create a combined minimum of just 61 permanent jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, for $1.3 billion in combined capital coming into the city, Cedar Rapids is only guaranteed 61 permanent positions, a spend of $21.3 million per job. That\u2019s even worse than the $136 million<\/a> Ark Data Center going up in Northeastern Ohio, which is projected to create a whopping ten full-time jobs when all is said and done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while Cedar Rapids brags that these developments will bring \u201cthousands of construction and trade jobs,\u201d that may not be to the city\u2019s benefit. Not only are data center construction jobs temporary \u2014 and therefore highly dependent on the whims of notoriously unreliable data center developers<\/a> \u2014 they\u2019re also putting quite the squeeze on the construction market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a recent analysis<\/a> by the firm Turner & Townsend found, the rush to build so many data centers has created a \u201ctwo-speed construction market,\u201d where top-dollar AI projects drive up costs for other developments like housing, while sucking up the skilled labor needed in other sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That report found that 87 percent of global construction markets are experiencing shortages of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) specialists, while the cost and lead-time of acquiring MEP components rises. That\u2019s great news for MEP contractors, but the trade-off is higher costs for everything else we might want to build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s before we even mention how disastrous data centers are for the environment \u2014 making it all the more insulting that taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for the tech industry\u2019s vastly exaggerated promises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To go further, I think we’ll see H1-B visa holders with these jobs, as the big megacorps putting in these data centers love their foreign slave labor. H1-B visa holders know if they don’t keep their employer happy, they get sent back to their country of origin. To solve the data center problem, areas should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18014,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18013\/revisions\/18014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}