Project Delta (Walnut Cove / Stokes County)

Project Delta (Walnut Cove / Stokes County) is Engineered Land Solutions's data center in Walnut Cove, NC. It is getting its permits, and it will be a size the company has not shared.

Electricians do the most work on a data center, followed by the crews that handle cooling and the crews that put up the steel frame. After that come plumbers, welders, carpenters, and the cable techs who 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.

Walnut Cove is part of a bigger building boom in North Carolina, 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 North Carolina apprenticeship. The trade pages for North Carolina show you how. Sources: a national survey of data-center building plans, plus U.S. jobs and pay data.