Do data centers create few permanent jobs?

Data centers generally provide few permanent jobs despite taking up huge swaths of land, according to experts, news organizations and company records. 

Data centers are facilities that house computer servers and often span hundreds of thousands of square feet. Multiple states, including Nevada, provide tax breaks for data centers.

The centers “do not bring high-paying tech jobs to local communities,” according to a 2025 policy brief by University of Michigan researchers. 

The brief said data centers do create temporary construction jobs and compared their economic impact to bridges or highways.

Business records from 2024 for a data center located outside Reno and operated by Vantage Data Centers estimated the 1.1 million-square-foot facility would create 73 permanent jobs in the next decade and more than 4,000 temporary construction jobs.

A University of Pennsylvania professor told NPR in 2025 that “most data centers employ about 100 to 200 people.”