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Building a data-center campus is years of skilled work. At the height of construction about 1,500 workers can be on site, and a campus can take five or more years to build out. In Northern Virginia, an electrical-workers union grew its apprenticeship program from 300 to 500 apprentices per training course; its representative told Virginia's Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission in 2024 that demand from the data-center industry drove that expansion.

Many of these jobs do not require a college degree. JLARC reports electricians starting at about $24 an hour and fully trained electricians earning about $56 an hour—roughly $50,000 to $116,000 a year before overtime. Once a building is running, data-center employees and contractors earned about $100,000 a year on average. Across Virginia's economy, the industry supported about 74,000 jobs, $5.5 billion in labor income and $9.1 billion in state GDP.

Building a facility requires electricians, equipment operators, pipefitters and many others. Keeping it running requires technicians, engineers, maintenance workers and security staff.

Construction and operations provide different kinds of work on different schedules. Understanding both helps a community connect a proposed project to employers, training programs and the careers residents can pursue.

Construction is a sequence of skilled work

A data center needs a prepared site, a building and the equipment that makes it function. JLARC describes crews surveying and leveling land, erecting steel frames and concrete walls, installing electrical systems and fitting pipes and cooling equipment.

In the operator examples collected for the report, an individual building usually took about 12 to 18 months to construct. Representatives described approximately 1,500 workers on site at the height of construction. Fully building out a campus could take five or more years.

A peak crew count describes the busiest point in that process. The schedule shows when particular trades are needed and how long their work lasts. A phased campus can provide a succession of projects, rather than one construction season.

The report also describes workers moving from one Virginia data-center project to another instead of leaving the state to find work. That continuity depends on the sequence of projects available. A local construction plan can show the first part of that sequence: buildings, expected start dates and the work required at each stage.

Operations keep the facility working

Once a building opens, the work shifts toward operating and maintaining it. Electrical and cooling systems need attention as components wear out and computing equipment is upgraded.

Several operators told JLARC that a typical 250,000-square-foot data center might have about 50 full-time workers. Roughly half were company or tenant employees; the other half were contractors working full-time at the facility.

The roles included facility managers, engineers, data technicians and maintenance staff, alongside contract electricians, pipefitters and security personnel. An operating workforce therefore extends beyond the people on the data-center company's payroll.

For a local proposal, a staffing plan can separate these employers and roles. It can also show how staffing grows as buildings open. The 50-worker example describes one building's operations; the 1,500-worker example describes a construction peak. They answer different employment questions.

Skills and pay belong in the explanation

The averages above vary by role and location. For a particular job, the employer's pay range, qualifications, schedule and benefits tell a prospective worker what the opportunity involves.

For communities, those details connect the employment forecast to residents' existing skills. They also show where training could open a route into work that people are not yet qualified to do.

Training makes the opportunity reachable

A training pathway connects demand for workers to people who want to enter the field. The U.S. Department of Labor describes Registered Apprenticeship as paid work experience with a mentor, classroom instruction, progressive wage increases and a portable, nationally recognized credential. Applicants apply through the employer or program sponsor.

That combines earning with learning a trade. The Northern Virginia union's expansion is one reported example of a training program responding to data-center construction demand.

Community colleges offer another route. Northern Virginia Community College, known as NOVA, offers an associate degree specializing in data-center operations and a career studies certificate. Its program description identifies technician, operator and technologist roles, with certificate courses preparing students for cabling credentials and OSHA 10 safety training.

NOVA also describes an ET Career Scholars pathway for graduating or graduated high-school students. It combines a free year at the college, a summer bridge program, a one-year data-center operations certificate and a guaranteed internship interview with an industry partner.

An interview is a specific step toward employment. The program puts preparation and an employer connection into the same pathway. A community considering a project can explore similar connections among the developer, contractors, training providers and local schools, then follow enrollment, completion and hiring results.

What wider employment estimates count

Data-center spending also supports work beyond the site. Contractors buy materials and services; workers spend earnings at other businesses. Economic-impact models trace those connections.

For JLARC, the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center modeled the industry's effects using average spending across fiscal years 2021–2023. It estimated about 59,000 construction-phase jobs and 15,000 operations-phase jobs supported across Virginia's economy—about 74,000 in total.

Those are annual-average modeled impacts across multiple industries, including direct, indirect and induced employment. Indirect work includes suppliers and contracted services. Induced work comes from spending by workers, such as at restaurants and shops.

The model's direct operations category counts company employees separately from contractors. That is a different grouping from an on-site staffing count that includes both. Keeping the definitions with the numbers lets readers see how employment at facilities connects to the wider economy.

A local hiring plan answers another question: which jobs residents can reach. Employer locations, recruitment, training access and actual hiring records connect the regional estimate to people in a particular community.

Understanding a local proposal

Start with a phase-by-phase construction and operating staffing plan. The developer and its contractors can explain the work schedule and employers; apprenticeship sponsors and colleges can explain entry requirements and training capacity. Local officials can identify any job commitments and reporting requirements in the project's agreements.

Five questions help connect the investment to local careers:

• How many workers are expected during each construction phase and in ongoing operations, and what does each count measure?
• Which companies employ them, what roles are available, and what pay, qualifications and schedules do those roles involve?
• How will local residents learn about and apply for the work, including jobs with contractors?
• Which apprenticeships, college programs or employer partnerships provide a route in, and how many people can they serve?
• What records will show hiring, training completions and progress against any agreed employment commitments?

Construction can support skilled trades; operations can sustain technical and maintenance work. Training and recruitment give communities a way to connect those opportunities to residents. Following the project from its staffing plan to actual hiring shows how that connection develops.