AI Companies Recruit Thousands of Electricians, Carpenters for Data Center Boom
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jul 29
AI Companies Recruit Thousands of Electricians, Carpenters for Data Center Boom
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 29
Summary
OpenAI’s project in Saline Township — described by Michigan as the state’s biggest single investment — is drawing hundreds of electricians for 10-hour shifts, seven days a week.
850 apprentices at Detroit’s Electrical Industry Training Center are watching workers get pulled to data-center sites, where pay and bonuses are among the richest the trade has seen.
That hiring wave is straining other electrical work in the region even as trainees weigh the overtime windfall against long hours and time away from home.
AI companies are also spending hundreds of millions of dollars to secure the next generation of skilled trades needed to build and operate the new facilities.