The Real AI Talent War Is for Plumbers and Electricians

“We always have far more people applying than we actually accept into our apprenticeship programs,” Madello explains. How many trainees are admitted, he adds, depends largely on how many union members are expected to retire in the coming years.

One problem, however, is getting people trained quickly enough to work on data center projects. Quinonez says the work itself is not very different from other plumbing jobs, but data centers are built on strict schedules, leaving little room for delays or errors.

That matters because apprentices typically learn on the job alongside more experienced plumbers at active construction sites. On data center projects, Quinonez says, companies are far less willing to take risks, since even small mistakes can slow a project down.

“It could get very costly for a contractor for something to go wrong,” he explains. Apprentices and trainees, he adds, may have to go through “more rigorous training” before they are assigned to help build a data center.

David Long, CEO of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), says the group has done a good job keeping pace with retirements by training new electricians. But the scale and technical requirements of data center projects has made it a “challenge”—which he argues that NECA is appropriately meeting—to ensure that all workers are onboarded quickly and safely.

Charles White, who oversees regulatory affairs at PHCC, tells WIRED that there’s plenty of incentives for plumbers, pipe layers, and HVAC technicians to work on data centers. The projects typically offer higher pay than other types of construction, partially because of their tight schedules, which make it more likely that workers will log overtime.

White adds that high demand for plumbers incentivizes workers to switch employers, and they are often enticed by the longer hours and therefore better pay being offered by data center developers.

“I actually hear these stories all the time,” Quinonez tells WIRED. “You're going to get paid quickly because you're dealing with an Amazon, or a Google, or a large tech company. So there's competition across the board.”

“The competition does get fierce,” Quinonez adds. “And part of the problem is there's just not enough plumbers and HVAC technicians.”

In any industry, companies are always competing for a limited pool of manpower. But in construction, Madello says, some of the pressure is offset by the reserve of traveling tradespeople, who are prepared to show up “anytime you build something in the middle of nowhere.”

It’s unclear how long demand for tradespeople will last after the artificial intelligence boom eventually starts to wane. When construction ends, data centers typically keep a small crew on site around the clock, along with a network of outside contractors who handle repairs for multiple facilities.

“When the project gets done, they're not crawling with people,” White tells WIRED. “But you have all of this stuff that has to be maintained and systems operated. So a certain number of those folks are going to stick around and get on a maintenance crew or an operations crew.”

If construction eventually tapers off, there might not be enough alternative jobs to go around, especially if the US economy enters a recession. But for now, business is great, and how things will end remains anyone’s guess. “Is it a sustained boom? Does it crash spectacularly?” says Basu. “Is the activity just gradually receding once the heart of the boom is over?”