Data Centers Are Reshaping the Southern Workforce

With the burgeoning data center industry grabbing most of the economic headlines here, there and seemingly everywhere, this Labor Day's workplace is undergoing transformative change.

In the Deepest South, which some analysts refer to as the "new" Silicon Valley, some college-educated design engineers will be required, but during the "build-out" of these digital processing enterprises, the bankable stars in this workplace for the immediate future will be born with or taught certain mechanical and technological skills—-I wish I had been that lucky, too, but no.

In many cases, the data center developers themselves will provide the bulk of the money needed for the public vo-tech training to ensure that a viable workforce will be available. These are not short-term projects being undertaken.

Some data center operations will benefit from a labor pool created by the closing of industries in the affected locales that employed hundreds of workers with technical skills.

An example of this would be in the remote southwest corner of Georgia, whose Georgia-Pacific linerboard plant closed in 2025 at Cedar Springs, on the Chattahoochee River dividing Georgia and Alabama.

That plant closing left some 550 highly-skilled employees jobless, many of whom presumably fit the job requirements at a data center. I hope they get that employment opportunity, if desired others have passed them by.

Virginia-based QTS has almost finalized an agreement with City of Blakely and Early County, Ga., government entities in Southwest Georgia, to spend up to $16 billion in private capital investments over multiple phases through 2032 to construct a data center east of town.

The project's memorandum of understanding spells out that the firm's investment would include $12.5 million for the Early County School System to install workforce development before construction even begins, meaning QTS is willing to put up its own money to help provide technical training for students who might someday work in its myriad departments.

Filling the construction ranks is the main priority for the short-term, with requirements ranging up to one thousand workers to build up the facility from the prominent red dirt prevalent in the area. Thus, it's not only digital support that's needed to operate the facility in the future, it's carpenters, electricians, pipefitters, plumbers and concrete and masonry specialists and associated personnel who will draw the first paychecks.

These construction workers will need places to stay and eat, further expanding the nature of the data center's indirect employment workforce.

Hourly and annual wages for workers involved in data center construction and maintenance nationwide have grown exponentially in a short period of time. One report indicated the centers' paychecks are generally $10 per hour above non-data center incomes.

QTS has publicly stated that its Blakely campus could create 1,000-plus construction jobs during development and hundreds of long-term jobs across QTS—-tenant operations, maintenance, and support services—-with the average data center technician salary around $80,000 per year.

"These careers generally offer wages above many traditional rural industries while providing opportunities for advancement through technical training and certifications rather than requiring a four-year degree," the company has declared.

Supplementing this new employment outlook in a massive way are the private utility companies providing the energy required to build, operate and maintain data centers.

QTS-Blakely won't need the electrical requirements of the monumental AI-connected data center complex under construction near Savannah, Ga., where the facility must have 3,200 megawatts of power, roughly equal to three nuclear reactors, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

There'll be lesser energy needs for smaller contractors to fuel these fledgling industrial treasures of the new southern workplace.

---Mac Gordon is a native of McComb. He is a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.