Data Center Jobs Boost Economic Growth: CBRE

Digital infrastructure has never been more crucial in ensuring dependable connectivity for business, commerce, and communication. According to CBRE, the development of new data center facilities contributes to general economic growth while also supporting modern technology such as artificial intelligence.

Citing data from accounting firm PwC, CBRE noted that data-center-related jobs expanded by 20% nationwide to 3.5 million from 2.9 million between 2017 and 2021, firmly above the 2% gain in overall U.S. employment. On average, each direct employment in the U.S. data center industry contributes to the creation of 7.4 ancillary jobs across the U.S. economy.

Data center expansion boosts local and state sales and property tax income. According to the CBRE study, data centers have a significant impact on tax generation in Virginia, Nebraska, and Ohio.

In Northern Virginia’s Loudoun County, tax revenue from computer equipment purchases for data centers increased by 170% to $582 million in 2023 from $215 million in 2021, more than doubling tax revenue from motor vehicle sales.

Mangum Economics projects that in 2022, there will be 490 full-time employees working in Nebraska data centers and over 1,500 construction workers building additional data centers, generating $1.3 billion in tax revenue combined. CBRE predicts that annual property taxes from a data center site can be 110 times higher than those from agricultural land.

Large-scale data center development in Ohio has created thousands of construction, operations, and maintenance jobs, as well as billions of dollars in economic output.