The Hidden Workforce Behind Texas's Data Center Boom
Why labor availability belongs on the same site diligence checklist as power and land
Texas's data center boom is running into a labor shortage as serious as its power shortage. Contractors report needing up to 6,000 workers on a single large campus, electricians (who account for roughly half of a data center's construction budget) are being pulled between overlapping projects, and the industry needs an estimated 450,000 or more new construction workers nationwide by 2027. For developers, that means workforce availability now belongs on the same site diligence checklist as substation capacity, interconnection queue position, and land control.
How short is the data center construction workforce in Texas?
According to reporting from CBS Austin, the shortage is already visible on the ground. At the Skybox data center project in Hutto, hundreds of electricians have cycled through the site, with one contractor alone peaking at 40 workers. Cameron Dodd, an electrician with IBEW Local 520, said his union posted 73 open journeyman electrician positions in a single day this month, calling it “a great time to be in the skilled trades.” Ken Simonson, chief economist at the Associated General Contractors of America, put a number on the scale of a large build: “I hear figures as high as 6,000 on a single job site.” J.D. Hale, vice president of government relations at the Texas Association of Builders, told the outlet that labor shortages have already delayed projects across the state.
The numbers behind those quotes:
Figure | What it captures |
450,000+ | New construction workers the industry estimates it will need nationwide by 2027 (DPR Construction) |
6,000 | Workers that can be on site at once for a single large data center campus (Associated General Contractors of America) |
73 | Journeyman electrician openings IBEW Local 520 posted in one day this month |
71,000 | Electricians currently employed in Texas |
~25,000 | Construction jobs added in Texas from June 2022 to June 2026, a 3% increase |
~50% | Share of a data center's construction budget spent on electrical systems |
Why workforce availability belongs in data center due diligence
Most data center site selection still starts with the same three questions: is there land, is there power, and is there fiber. LandGate's due diligence work with developers has increasingly needed to add a fourth: is there a labor market that can actually build this. A site with abundant available transfer capacity and a short interconnection queue can still slip a year behind schedule if every general contractor within a hundred miles is competing for the same electricians.
That risk compounds in Texas specifically, because the same counties producing the state's strongest substation capacity and land inventory, the kind LandGate tracks in its data center hot spot analysis, are also the ones seeing the most overlapping construction. A cluster of projects breaking ground on the same timeline draws from the same trade union locals and the same pool of licensed electricians, which is exactly the dynamic Local 520's Dodd is describing. That is a modelable risk, not a surprise, when it's checked before a site is under contract rather than after ground is broken.
What developers can do about it
Three things turn workforce risk into something you can underwrite instead of something that surprises you mid-build: check a market's existing skilled-trades headcount and recent job growth against how many other large projects are already competing for that same labor pool, build a wage and schedule contingency into underwriting rather than assuming today's crew costs hold for a multi-year build, and treat a region's labor pipeline, apprenticeship programs, and union capacity as part of the same site analysis used to evaluate power and land. LandGate's site analysis and data center due diligence tools already model the land, power, and infrastructure side of that equation, so developers can layer workforce data on top of it rather than discovering the gap mid-construction.
Frequently asked questions
How many construction workers does a large data center project need?
Ken Simonson, chief economist at the Associated General Contractors of America, told CBS Austin he has heard figures as high as 6,000 workers on a single job site for the largest campuses. Multi-building, multi-phase projects like the Skybox development in Hutto, Texas can cycle through hundreds of electricians alone as construction moves between buildings and phases.
Why are electricians specifically in short supply?
Electrical systems account for roughly half of a data center's total construction budget, more than any other trade, so electrician demand scales directly with the pace of new builds. IBEW Local 520 in Central Texas reported 73 open journeyman electrician positions posted in a single day, and its members describe the current market as one of the strongest hiring environments the trade has seen.
How big is the labor gap nationally?
DPR Construction estimates the industry will need more than 450,000 additional construction workers nationwide by 2027 to keep pace with data center and related demand, a figure echoed across the broader construction sector as labor supply has not kept up with build volume.
Is Texas's construction workforce growing at all?
Yes. Texas added roughly 25,000 construction jobs between June 2022 and June 2026, a 3% increase, and the state currently employs about 71,000 electricians. The shortage is a demand problem as much as a supply problem: build volume is outpacing even a growing workforce.
How does a labor shortage affect data center project timelines?
J.D. Hale of the Texas Association of Builders told CBS Austin that labor shortages have already caused delays on projects in the state. Because electrical work is sequenced tightly with equipment delivery and energization, a shortage of licensed electricians in particular can push back a project's in-service date even when land and power are fully secured.
Should workforce availability factor into data center site selection?
Increasingly, yes. Power availability and interconnection timing have dominated site selection conversations for the past several years, but a market with abundant capacity and a short queue can still underperform on schedule if every nearby project is drawing from the same limited pool of electricians and skilled tradespeople.
Is this shortage specific to data centers, or a broader construction trend?
Data centers are pulling on a labor pool that also serves semiconductor fabs, industrial plants, and general commercial construction, so the shortage reflects broader construction labor trends that current data center build-out is concentrating and accelerating.
Where can developers get help modeling a site's full risk picture, not just power and land?
LandGate's data center due diligence and site analysis tools are built to model the land, power, and infrastructure fundamentals of a potential site side by side, giving developers a fuller diligence picture before committing capital to a location.
Power and land are only part of the site selection equation now, and workforce availability is quickly becoming the third. See how LandGate's data helps you evaluate a site's full picture before you commit capital. Book a demo.
