Illinois needs
data center technicians for its data centers

Illinois is building 3.8 GW of new AI data centers across 14 sites. On a data center, data center technicians run and fix the live building — power, cooling, and computer hardware — day and night.

Data center technicians — worth training up: YES. Once these data centers open they will need about 592 data center technicians to run them, day and night. These are permanent jobs, and there are not enough local data center technicians to fill them — so they hire and train. Steady, long-term work.

Illinois has 14 data-center sites in the works, with 3.8 GW still to build. That keeps data center technicians busy for years: as one job winds down, the next one is starting, so the work does not dry up after a single build.

Illinois data center technicians earn about $46,260 a year on average. Data-center work pays more than that, and when a trade is short, overtime can push experienced data center technicians well over $100,000 a year, with health care and a pension through the union.

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.

The building work runs a few years, not forever — but Illinois has enough lined up to keep you busy, and the skills carry over to every other big job in the state. To start, look at the Illinois data center technicians apprenticeship programs. That is the way in. Sources: a national survey of data-center building plans, plus U.S. jobs and pay data.