Data centre build-out to need thousands of extra tradespeople a year, Oxford Economics says
An Oxford Economics briefing forecasts Australian data centre construction will need an average of 5,200 electricians a year from 2026 to 2030, adding to shortages across infrastructure. A companion report says up to three-quarters of the investment will go on imported goods.
Oxford Economics estimates that building Australia's data centres will call for an annual average of 5,200 full-time equivalent electricians between 2026 and 2030, along with 4,200 plumbers and pipe fitters and 2,600 mechanical and HVAC technicians. The briefing, Data centres boost demand for trades, was written by economist Oscar Guth and warns that competition for specialised labour could lift wages and contractor costs and raise the risk of delays across data centre, energy, defence, hospital and other projects.
Oxford Economics forecasts direct employment in the industry will peak at about 38,400 workers in 2030, with around 36,000 in construction and project delivery and 2,400 in operating completed facilities. Data centres are expected to account for about 22 per cent of electrician demand across major projects nationally over the period, about 40 per cent for plumbers and pipe fitters and 38 per cent for mechanical and HVAC technicians. Non-IT work is forecast to rise eightfold, from $4bn in 2024 to $32.4bn in 2030, equal at its peak to about 13 per cent of all non-residential building and engineering construction.
The demand lands on a workforce already short of people. Citing Infrastructure Australia estimates, Oxford Economics said the infrastructure sector had about 204,000 workers in 2025 and a shortfall of about 141,000. Since September 2025, job advertisements have risen 16 per cent for electrical and telecommunications tradespeople, 10 per cent for engineers and 5 per cent for ICT technicians. Spending on major infrastructure projects, including data centres, is forecast to rise from about $106 billion in 2026 to $144bn in 2030, with major energy construction going from about $28bn to $45bn.
The report expects construction employment to spread beyond Sydney and Melbourne, which hold 87 per cent of the sector's construction workforce in 2026 but are forecast to fall to 54 per cent by 2030. Regional construction employment is forecast to grow from around 300 workers to more than 10,000, lifting the regional share from about 3 per cent to 29 per cent. Oxford Economics said AI-focused facilities have higher energy needs, different specifications and lower latency requirements, which could favour regional sites with abundant land and fewer approval constraints. Ongoing operational employment is more modest, because much of the work of running computing infrastructure is done off-site by hyperscale customers, though Australian neocloud providers could add local roles.
A separate briefing by economist Harry McAuley compares the boom with mining investment of the 2000s and early 2010s. Oxford Economics estimates investment in data centre facilities and equipment could exceed $240bn over the five years to 2030, and that up to three-quarters of it will go to imported goods, against an estimated peak of 45 per cent in the mining boom. IT equipment is expected to make up around half of investment and is almost entirely imported, and Australia has no advanced processor manufacturing capacity. Data centre-related imports are forecast to peak at just under $45bn in 2030.
The briefing says the export contribution of data centres is less certain than that of mining. McAuley cites NextDC estimates that application, education and compute exports could generate $11bn over the five years to 2030, which Oxford Economics describes as relatively small against imported components. GPUs and accelerators are estimated to last four to six years, against up to 30 years for major mining assets, so operators could generate repeated waves of equipment imports.