Kansas City data centers and AI flip the script on job security

Andrew Jonas has spent the past three years building data centers in Kansas City’s Northland as a union plumber.  At a recent public hearing he lauded the construction jobs those projects have provided. Even so, he spoke against a 90% tax abatement for a multibillion-dollar project in his hometown of Independence.“They’re popping up like crazy everywhere,” Jonas said. “Do I love them? No. Not at all. But they’ve got money and they make for damn good jobs.” Takeaways Kansas City’s data center construction boom is a bright spot in an otherwise flat local job market, driving a 9.3% increase in construction employment last year. The pipeline of projects matters more to union trades than any single project — current demand is doubling apprenticeship classes and promising the trades long-term stability. The AI being powered by data centers poses far more risk to white-collar and graduate-degree holders than to the blue-collar workers building them. As his testimony suggests, the data center boom is as consequential as it is controversial. Residents have been vocal about potential positives stemming from billions of dollars in investment and concerns about tax breaks and potential impacts on utility bills.  Underlying the public debate about large-scale data centers — and the impact of the AI they support — is the biggest story in the labor market set to unfold over the next decade. The current construction boom, largely brought on by data centers, is real and measurable.  What c...