Indiana needs
welders for its data centers

Indiana is building 13 GW of new AI data centers across 17 sites. On a data center, welders weld the steel and the pipe that hold the building and its cooling together.

Welders — could go either way. The data centers need about 1,956 welders, and Indiana has about 3,315 free for this kind of work. Enough to mostly cover it, but it will be busy, with some overtime.

Indiana has 17 data-center sites in the works, with 13 GW still to build. That keeps welders busy for years: as one job winds down, the next one is starting, so the work does not dry up after a single build.

Indiana welders earn about $48,460 a year on average. Data-center work pays more than that, and when a trade is short, overtime can push experienced welders 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 Indiana 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 Indiana welders apprenticeship programs. That is the way in. Sources: a national survey of data-center building plans, plus U.S. jobs and pay data.