A.I. Companies Are Recruiting Electricians and Carpenters by the Thousands

[philb2]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/...tricians-training.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

oon, he could join them: OpenAI’s project in Saline Township is the biggest single investment in Michigan’s history, according to the state, requiring hundreds of electricians working 10-hour days, seven days a week. Despite the overtime bonanza, Mr. Shelton has mixed feelings.

“I’d like to have a house in the next year or so,” he said. “So it’s like, I understand the draw, but I also like to have a life outside work.”

Developers are paying a premium for workers, especially in the rural areas where they are building data centers. According to an analysis by Indeed, the job listings website, hourly installation and maintenance jobs at data centers pay 42 percent more than similar jobs in other fields.

 

[Ididar]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/...tricians-training.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

oon, he could join them: OpenAI’s project in Saline Township is the biggest single investment in Michigan’s history, according to the state, requiring hundreds of electricians working 10-hour days, seven days a week. Despite the overtime bonanza, Mr. Shelton has mixed feelings.

“I’d like to have a house in the next year or so,” he said. “So it’s like, I understand the draw, but I also like to have a life outside work.”

Developers are paying a premium for workers, especially in the rural areas where they are building data centers. According to an analysis by Indeed, the job listings website, hourly installation and maintenance jobs at data centers pay 42 percent more than similar jobs in other fields.

Which will, of course, slow the building of houses that people need to live in and drive up the costs. Need a new water heater in your house? Sorry, nobody is available for ages because we're all working on the data centre.

 

[raz-0]

What do the carpenters do? Having been involved in the running of a our few machine rooms for a period.. yeah electricians are all over the place doing the things very often. Plumbers and HVAC too. The only thing vaguely carpenter like is steel framing in interior walls, and we always had specialists for that who weren't carpenters as far as I was aware. Also all the carpenters I know in non work life do strictly wood stuff.

 

[HockeyJon]

Which will, of course, slow the building of houses that people need to live in and drive up the costs. Need a new water heater in your house? Sorry, nobody is available for ages because we're all working on the data centre.

That's been the case where I live for a while with the home renovation boom. You can't get basic work done because the tradesman won't show up unless it's at least a $10,000 job. Nothing new, just a different thing, only now we get to hate it because everyone hates datacenters.

The solution is to train more tradesmen and less gender studies majors, but academia won't tell you that.

 

[HockeyJon]

What do the carpenters do? Having been involved in the running of a our few machine rooms for a period.. yeah electricians are all over the place doing the things very often. Plumbers and HVAC too. The only thing vaguely carpenter like is steel framing in interior walls, and we always had specialists for that who weren't carpenters as far as I was aware. Also all the carpenters I know in non work life do strictly wood stuff.

Most likely construction-related work like building scaffolding. When I was a project engineer at construction projects, we always had carpenters on the crew for those types of tasks. They do more than just cut wood.

 

[Ididar]

That's been the case where I live for a while with the home renovation boom. You can't get basic work done because the tradesman won't show up unless it's at least a $10,000 job. Nothing new, just a different thing, only now we get to hate it because everyone hates datacenters.

The solution is to train more tradesmen and less gender studies majors, but academia won't tell you that.

Has nothing to do with academia. It has to do with generations of parents pushing their kids to get a higher education. A guy that spent his life working with his hands hopes for "better" for his kids when he retires half crippled up from impact guns, crawling around, and so forth. Higher education is a business like any other but parents were the ones pushing their kids. In my generation, even governments were pushing for more educated people because we had LOTS of trades people and needed far more educated people. Now governments are flipping the narrative.

 

[SamuelL421]

What do the carpenters do? Having been involved in the running of a our few machine rooms for a period.. yeah electricians are all over the place doing the things very often. Plumbers and HVAC too. The only thing vaguely carpenter like is steel framing in interior walls, and we always had specialists for that who weren't carpenters as far as I was aware. Also all the carpenters I know in non work life do strictly wood stuff.

NYT is maybe using "carpenters" as a catch-all for "builders" or the like. The people being hired for our local data center build are electricians, plumbers, utility-adjenct stuff, HVAC, general construction workers (via construction firms). Articles like this are kinda bullshit in that they make it sound like blue-collar handymen are walking up to the data center site and getting jobs. The involved construction firms are definitely recruiting trades, but it is a much more professional / white collar deal than what most people imagine.

Has nothing to do with academia. It has to do with generations of parents pushing their kids to get a higher education. A guy that spent his life working with his hands hopes for "better" for his kids when he retires half crippled up from impact guns, crawling around, and so forth. Higher education is a business like any other but parents were the ones pushing their kids. In my generation, even governments were pushing for more educated people because we had LOTS of trades people and needed far more educated people. Now governments are flipping the narrative.

Seemed to me that for a generation or two, we were told you HAD to go to some form of college/university to not be considered some sort of failure. Most folks 30-50 probably encountered some degree of this. Unfortunate for everyone invloved becuase it funneled tons of kids who weren't cut out for higher ed into those tracks and the results speak for themselves. Loads of people who barely limped through 2 or 4 years and learned nothing or they chose majors they weren't really interested in or which had little practical utility. All of this to skimp through with C's and D's, getting a degree equivalent of a "participation" award in exchange for crippling debt.

Anyway, it just always strikes me as stupid how we don't have more apprenticeship systems in place - for both trades and professional roles. To put it bluntly: I think some people just learn better in that setup AND I think the average person just isn't smart or intellectually curious enough to succeed in any higher education system that is sufficiently hard (as to actually weed people out or force them to learn).

 

[Nobu]

I could have done well as a carpenter or electrician, but instead I took a few semesters of college, then decided it wasn't for me and joined the Air Force because I couldn't figure out how to get into a trade, and I needed a paying job.

I would still like to get into carpentry, but I need to pay the bills, so I can't really afford to go learn now, and I don't have any professional experience or training so nobody will just hire me.

Maybe I'll start making furniture as a side gig.
...well, first I need an actual workshop, I guess.

 

[Ididar]

Seemed to me that for a generation or two, we were told you HAD to go to some form of college/university to not be considered some sort of failure. Most folks 30-50 probably encountered some degree of this. Unfortunate for everyone invloved becuase it funneled tons of kids who weren't cut out for higher ed into those tracks and the results speak for themselves. Loads of people who barely limped through 2 or 4 years and learned nothing or they chose majors they weren't really interested in or which had little practical utility. All of this to skimp through with C's and D's, getting a degree equivalent of a "participation" award in exchange for crippling debt.

Anyway, it just always strikes me as stupid how we don't have more apprenticeship systems in place - for both trades and professional roles. To put it bluntly: I think some people just learn better in that setup AND I think the average person just isn't smart or intellectually curious enough to succeed in any higher education system that is sufficiently hard (as to actually weed people out or force them to learn).

Yes, that's true. Lots of parents did push their kids into higher education. A buddy of mine is a mechanic and he pushed all his kids to try to get more education because he didn't want them, at 50 or 60, to be up to their arms in grease and oil. He certainly wants them to understand that stuff but he still wants them to do better than he did. Maybe they'd be better off as mechanics, or not, but as a parent he understood the downside of his profession and didn't want his kids to do the same. This is the thing a lot of people forget about the manual labour professions ... they are often not easy on joints over a lifetime and by the time kids are thinking about careers a lot of those parents are starting to feel the effects of a lifetime turning wrenches or swinging a hammer.

Yes, some people would have been better off in apprenticeships. I agree. I don't doubt that for a second. But, in my experience most of the pressure didn't come from academia itself but from the parents, and governments, trying to promote certain industries. Right now in aviation for instance there is a drastic shortage of pilots and mechanics. There is a big push ongoing to train more people. The government pushes this stuff wherever industry needs them to. Back when I was growing up they were pushing for more people with higher education because we had a shortage. That probably lasted longer than it needed to. And, yes, some people ended up with the "participation" trophy of educations but the same is true of construction work. Someone ends up holding the STOP/SLOW side at construction and it isn't the best tradesperson they have.

 

[HockeyJon]

Has nothing to do with academia. It has to do with generations of parents pushing their kids to get a higher education. A guy that spent his life working with his hands hopes for "better" for his kids when he retires half crippled up from impact guns, crawling around, and so forth. Higher education is a business like any other but parents were the ones pushing their kids. In my generation, even governments were pushing for more educated people because we had LOTS of trades people and needed far more educated people. Now governments are flipping the narrative.

Who do you think marketed higher education to the parents? School is big business. Yes, it's fair that everyone wants a comfortable, air conditioned office job, but anyone with common sense knows many college degrees are functionally useless to that end, and you're not giving your kids better opportunities by plunging them into debt in pursuit of a humanities degree.

 

[Gorilla]

Who do you think marketed higher education to the parents? School is big business. Yes, it's fair that everyone wants a comfortable, air conditioned office job, but anyone with common sense knows many college degrees are functionally useless to that end, and you're not giving your kids better opportunities by plunging them into debt in pursuit of a humanities degree.

Yup, I when I was getting my accounting degree there was a guy with a history degree there who was like yeah, turns out I need a job. I think there was someone with an English degree as well.

My stance is that if you don't know what you want to do but you feel like you have to go to college, at least go to community college where it will be a fraction of the cost of a university.

 

[kram182]

Most likely construction-related work like building scaffolding. When I was a project engineer at construction projects, we always had carpenters on the crew for those types of tasks. They do more than just cut wood.

Correct - I had my scaffolding license when in the carpentry union - got it cause I wanted that cush job at Turkey Point nuke plant but never got it

 

[myzz]

Congrats tradesmen, you get paid very well for building your own prison.

Nuke plants though I am happy to see being built, as long as they are done by qualified people and corruption-free organizations who pride themselves on truth and safety over profits and evading accountability.