There is no denying it, the United States needs more electricity. Artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, advanced manufacturing, and a growing population require it. As a major participant in the tech industry, we should know – our business depends on it.
At Microsoft, we made headlines last year when we announced a partnership to purchase future offtake electricity from a soon-to-be recommissioned part of the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island.
This portion of the plant, which thankfully never suffered an accident, is a significant purchase – enough to power 500,000 homes. However, it’s a small part of the tech sector’s future energy needs.
Yet, there’s an important part of this story that isn’t getting the attention it deserves.
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As I prepared for a White House meeting last fall on the nation’s electricity needs, I met with the leaders at Microsoft who are building our AI infrastructure across the country. During our discussion, I asked them to identify the single biggest challenge for data center expansion in the United States.
I expected they would mention slow permitting, delays in bringing more power online or supply chain constraints – all significant challenges.
But instead, they highlighted a national shortage of people. Electricians, to be precise.
In many ways, this is not surprising. If you visit a construction site for one of our large data centers, one of the most striking aspects is the large number of electricians at work. They are essential to data center construction, installing a massive – and massively complex – system of electrical panels, transformers, and backup power systems like generators and battery storage.
In states like Wisconsin, Washington, Virginia, Georgia, Texas, Iowa, Wyoming and Arizona, where Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure construction, we’ve hired many thousands of electricians. But it’s not enough.
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Due to local labor shortages, we are employing some electricians who are commuting as far as 75 miles away or even temporarily relocating from across the country to fill these critical roles.
This has prompted us to closely examine what has become a pressing national need. How many new electricians must the United States recruit and train over the next decade?
Our best guess?
Probably half a million.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there are currently 780,000 active electricians in the United States, with another 80,000 jobs open.
Additionally, the National Electrical Contractors Association reports that the median age of electricians is over 40 years old. Nearly 30% of union electricians are between the ages of 50 and 70. It’s reasonable to assume that 20,000 current electricians will retire each year, meaning a loss of 200,000 over the next decade.
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In addition, we estimate that demand for more electricity will require the country each year to add 30,000 more electricians to the national total. Or another 300,000 in the decade ahead, on top of the 200,000 retirees that will need to be replaced.
The good news is that these are good jobs.
The bad news is that we don’t have a national strategy to recruit and train the people to fill these jobs.
Given the Trump administration’s commitment to supporting American workers, American jobs and American innovation, we believe that recruiting and training more electricians should rise to its list of priorities. There are several ways to address this issue, and they deserve consideration.
For example, we need to do more as a nation to revitalize the industrial arts and shop classes in American high schools. When I was a student at Appleton West in Wisconsin in the 1970s, these classes were plentiful and popular. But across the country, they started to decline in the 1990s, and today they’re just starting to see the resurgence they deserve.
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This should be a priority for local school boards, state governors and appropriate federal support.
Post-secondary opportunities are also critical. This includes the nation’s community colleges and apprenticeship programs. The Trump administration should consider making existing federal education, training funds and tax incentives available to scale up these opportunities.
We also need better forecasting. This will require more formal partnerships between business and organized labor, so we all understand anticipated workforce needs.
We must also adopt a broad perspective on where new technology is taking us. The tech sector is most often focused on computer and data science – people who code. But the future will also be built in critical ways by a new generation of engineers, electricians, plumbers, pipefitters, iron workers, carpenters and other skilled trades.
These are all important, good-paying American jobs that will help build a more prosperous future.
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