How many jobs do data centers create?

≈50Typical full-time workers for a 250,000-sq-ft facility, according to industry representatives cited by JLARC

≈1,500Peak workers during a typical building’s construction, same source

12–18 mo.Typical construction duration per building, same source

Evidence-based answerData centers can support very large but temporary construction workforces and smaller, often well-paid operating teams. The balance varies by campus phase and whether contractor roles are counted.

Use four separate job measures

Construction

Peak on-site workers

A snapshot of simultaneous labor demand. It should include a date or project phase and should not be summed across months.

Duration

Job-years

One full-time-equivalent position for one year. Economic-impact models often report job-years; that is not a count of unique people.

Operations

Direct permanent employees

Company employees operating the completed facility. Report payroll and local residency separately when available.

Contractors

Ongoing contracted roles

Security, maintenance and technical contractors can be permanent on-site work without appearing on the operator’s employee count.

Two claims, properly labeled

Virginia JLARC reported that representatives described a typical 250,000-square-foot facility as having about 50 full-time workers, roughly half contractors, compared with approximately 1,500 workers at peak construction. These are representative estimates supplied by industry participants—not a national census.

Indiana announced that AWS’s New Carlisle campus would create at least 1,000 new jobs. In 2026, an AWS-authored account said the site had nearly 1,000 operations staff, while the South Bend Regional Chamber project page reported 1,056 full-time AWS employees. DataCenterData therefore classifies the baseline as company-reported as delivered, with independent reconciliation still pending because the project-specific county CF-1 compliance filing, payroll definition and contractor treatment have not been reviewed.