data centers they consume a lot of electricitymaking raise the electricity bill, they pollute the air and sometimes water too. There are more and more arguments against them, while the arguments in favor for those who live near one of these mastodons are basically reduced to one: they generate many jobs. Sure?
What is happening. The United States concentrates a third of all data centers in the world. They count in Futurism that there are states competing to attract big technology companies, offering resources and tax exemptions in exchange for them generating jobs and helping to develop their communities. However, it is increasingly clear that the creation of stable and lasting employment is an unfulfilled promise.
Billions for a handful of jobs. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, there are two projects underway for two data centers from QTS and Google respectively. As reflected in the Cedar Rapids Economic Development Centerto encourage the construction of these infrastructures, the city has offered them a 70% exemption from property taxes for 20 years, in addition to returning 75% of electricity rates (a municipal surcharge that is applied to the bill). Google and QTS are going to spend 1.3 billion on their data centers, but it is estimated that they will save more than 580 million on taxes and municipal fees. And you will say how many jobs are they going to create? Under the contract, they are only required to create 61 permanent jobs.
Why is it important. Data centers have become the engine of the American economy, but one thing is the wild investment of big tech to build them and the impact on local employment is quite another. They are enormous infrastructures, which cost a lot of money, but once launched they operate practically on autopilot. The tasks that really need human intervention are very few compared to their magnitude.
In Aragon too. This situation is not exclusive to the United States, the same thing is also happening in Aragon. We recently learned the employment figures that Amazon will generate in Villanueva del Gállegowhere they are building six data centers. The company had spoken of up to 29,900 full-time positions linked to the project, but they were counting indirect and induced employment, such as suppliers and associated services. The reality is that between six data centers, they are going to hire only 180 permanent people who will work in shifts so that they can operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Once again, the narrative of mass employment is leaking everywhere.
Employment yes, but temporary. To build data centers of that magnitude, many companies from different sectors must move, which indirectly does generate a lot of employment. In the case of Cedar Rapids, the city boasts that the projects will create “thousands of construction and trades jobs,” the problem is what will happen to all of them when the data center comes online.
According to a recent report by Turner & Townsend echoed in Futurism, the urgency to build new data centers has caused prices to rise in other projects such as housing construction, in addition to monopolizing specialized labor in construction areas.
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