Data centres need an army of builders, then far fewer workers

The AI data-centre boom could support around 400,000 jobs as it rolls out, according to Westpac. The catch is in the timing: most of that work is in construction, and it ends when the buildings are finished.

Australia is in the middle of a building boom, and it is not housing. Westpac senior economist Pat Bustamante now estimates the pipeline of AI data-centre investment at A$175 billion, with about A$110 billion of that spending expected by the end of 2029.

The jobs figure attached to that boom is striking. In its May 2026 analysis, Westpac estimated the build-out could support around 400,000 jobs as the investment rolls out. The word that matters is temporary. Westpac describes the economic boost as front-loaded, "driven by the construction of buildings and structures."

Overseas experience points the same way. Research cited by the ABC shows a large data centre can need thousands of workers at the peak of construction, but once running, it employs relatively few. A United Kingdom government report cited by the ABC found that data centres are "highly automated facilities, and the number of jobs directly created is relatively modest, ranging from a few tens to a few hundreds."

That makes the type of job more important than the headline number. The construction phase leans heavily on specialist trades. "Data centre construction demands highly specialised trades like high-voltage electricians, industrial cooling technicians and advanced mechanical engineers," said M. Reza Hosseini, a senior lecturer in construction technology at the University of Melbourne. Those skills, he noted, "only partly overlap with residential building."

The operating jobs that remain can pay well. Listings on SEEK reviewed by the ABC in July 2026 showed data-centre technician roles in Melbourne and Sydney advertised at between about A$137,000 and A$149,000 a year, before bonuses.

There is also a limit on how much of the spending stays onshore. Westpac estimates the equipment side of data centres is 50 to 60 per cent import-intensive, and close to fully imported for servers, chips and networking gear. Its earlier analysis put the net boost to Australian GDP at about A$75 billion, roughly half the gross investment at the time.

The boom also competes for the same people as everything else. Hosseini warned that "when a hyper-scale project offers premium wages to secure electricians for 18 months, those workers are unavailable for housing."

The A$400,000 figure is real, but it describes a wave of temporary construction work. The lasting opportunity is narrower and better paid: the electricians, cooling specialists, engineers and technicians who build and then run these facilities. We expect demand for those skills to stay strong through the end of the decade, and to keep pulling tradespeople away from housing construction. If you are choosing a trade or an engineering specialisation now, electrical and mechanical skills that transfer between data centres, energy and heavy industry look a safer bet than roles tied to a single building boom.