Meta DeKalb Campus (Buildings 1-5)

Meta DeKalb Campus (Buildings 1-5) is Meta's data center in DeKalb, IL. It is being built right now, and it will be about 800 MW when it is done. It is set to open around 2024.

A data center this size takes a small army to build. At the busiest point, about 1,536 workers will be on site at once. Electricians are needed the most — about 432 of them at peak — to run the power. Pipefitters and HVAC crews handle the cooling, ironworkers and welders put up the steel, and cable techs wire the computers together.

Skilled-trade jobs on data centers are some of the best-paying work you can get without a four-year degree. With overtime, experienced electricians and pipefitters often make over $100,000 a year, and the work comes with health care and a pension through the union.

DeKalb is part of a bigger building boom in Illinois, and workers drive in from all over the area. It is the same across the country: builders cannot find enough skilled workers. The U.S. needs about 140,000 more trade workers by 2030 to build all the data centers, and most builders say hiring is their hardest problem. Microsoft's president has called the shortage of electricians the biggest thing slowing data centers down.

Jobs like this one are why the local trade halls are busy. The work goes through local unions and contractors, and you start through a Illinois apprenticeship. The trade pages for Illinois show you how. Sources: a national survey of data-center building plans, plus U.S. jobs and pay data.