Iowa needs
carpenters for its data centers

Iowa is building 6.1 GW of new AI data centers across 26 sites. On a data center, carpenters pour the concrete and frame the building.

Carpenters — worth training up: YES, big shortage. At the busiest point the data centers need about 2,022 carpenters, but only about 1,662 of Iowa's carpenters are free to take it on — the rest are busy with their regular jobs, which do not stop. That leaves Iowa short about 360. When builders cannot find enough carpenters, the ones already working put in overtime (bigger paychecks), and builders pay to train new people and bring in workers from other states.

Iowa has 26 data-center sites in the works, with 6.1 GW still to build. That keeps carpenters busy for years: as one job winds down, the next one is starting, so the work does not dry up after a single build.

Iowa carpenters earn about $54,080 a year on average. Data-center work pays more than that, and when a trade is short, overtime can push experienced carpenters 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 Iowa 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 Iowa carpenters apprenticeship programs. That is the way in. Sources: a national survey of data-center building plans, plus U.S. jobs and pay data.