Data Centers Power Wisconsin Construction Boom Despite Public Backlash

Construction is underway at the site of Meta’s future data center Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in Beaver Dam, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

The construction industry accounted for around half of the non-farm job growth in Wisconsin over the last year, as a few high-profile data center projects moved forward in the state.

Wisconsin added 10,500 construction jobs from August 2025 to August 2026, more than half of the 19,400 total non-farm jobs added over that period, according to data from the state Department of Workforce Development. The industry accounted for 156,500 jobs as of August, the most recent month with available data.

That growth has come in a year in which Microsoft completed the first phase of its data center campus in Mount Pleasant, while construction continued on other campuses in Port Washington and Beaver Dam.

Scott Hodek, an economist at the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, said there’s a variety of factors contributing to the sector’s growth statewide and the agency did not have the “specificity of data” to break out construction jobs tied to data centers.

Hodek said there was demand coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and — as inflation has remained high — more companies are deciding to move forward with building projects in hopes of beating future cost increases.

“We’re seeing a lot of growth in construction in general, and that’s all across the board,” he said. “Honestly, that’s generally a good sign when you’re still seeing construction, even though materials and labor costs are up.”

Data center development is widely unpopular with the public in Wisconsin. In a Marquette Law School Poll of Wisconsin residents released in August, 67 percent of respondents said they would like to ban data center development for at least a year. For voters questioned for the poll, data centers were a bigger issue than abortion policy, public schools and crime in their communities.

Despite pushback from the public, the industry has been growing fast in the state.

Especially in southeast Wisconsin — home to two of the three major data center projects under construction in the state — business and labor leaders say data centers are driving growth in both the construction and manufacturing industries, though manufacturing job growth has been weaker statewide.

A Microsoft data center in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin appears in a June 2026 photo. Photo courtesy of Microsoft

Union construction industry views data centers as ‘decade-long runway’ for growth

Chris Mambu Rasch is the executive director of Building Advantage, a labor management association for the union construction industry in southeast Wisconsin. He said both data center campuses being developed in southeast Wisconsin “are essentially 100 percent union construction” projects.

The Microsoft development in Mount Pleasant completed its first phase earlier this year. Mambu Rasch said the phase had around 3,000 union construction workers at peak construction, while roughly 10,000 workers cycled through the site over a two-year period.

He said phase two is expected to “see similar numbers” and is already “pretty heavy” into construction, with one union sending 600 workers to that project alone.

In Port Washington, he said there are between 2,500 and 2,800 union construction workers at the data center site. He said he expects “well over 4,000” union jobs on that project during peak construction.

“Data centers have created an extraordinary amount of work related to the projects in Mount Pleasant and in Port Washington,” he said.

Meanwhile, social media giant Meta, the company behind the data center being developed in Beaver Dam, has said its project would support “approximately 1,000 construction jobs.”

Mambu Rasch said he believes there’s a “decade-long runway” where union construction could see strong growth tied to data centers. He said Microsoft plans to build 15 more in Mount Pleasant, while the Port Washington project is in the first phase of development.

He said data center developers are interested in other sites in Wisconsin.

“This is sustained, long-term employment,” Mambu Rasch said. “We have the utmost confidence that this work is going to be there for the next decade, and that shows because our contractors are bringing on a record number of apprentices.”

Workers construct a Meta data center Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in Beaver Dam, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Data centers help spur construction of power facilities

Aside from building data centers themselves, the projects are also spurring construction of new power plants and electric infrastructure to help meet an expected spike in power demands.

Mambu Rasch said union workers generally build Wisconsin’s power infrastructure, from natural gas power plants to solar and wind farms.

“The energy infrastructure buildout to supply the energy for the data centers is certainly having a positive impact on our industry,” he said.

A recent draft report from state regulators found peak electricity demand in Wisconsin could increase by more than 40 percent by 2032, with more than 70 percent of that increase tied to data centers.

The Port Washington and Mount Pleasant data centers are in We Energies’ service territory.

WEC Energy Group, the parent company of We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service, has received approval from state utility regulators to develop seven solar farms, five battery storage projects, two wind projects, two natural gas power plants, a natural gas storage facility and a 33-mile natural gas pipeline project, according to a September presentation to investors.

“The new power generation facilities we are building are creating jobs, supporting local businesses and strengthening the electric grid for our customers,” said Brendan Conway, a spokesperson for WEC Energy Group. “More than 3,000 people will be employed during construction as we make critical investments in a reliable and resilient energy future.”

The company has other planned construction projects awaiting regulatory approval, including seven solar projects and a pair of natural gas plants in Kenosha and Walworth counties, the presentation shows.

“With We Energies and the other energy companies, these energy plants are gonna result in a lot of work,” Mambu Rasch said.

Construction unfolds at the 350-plus-acre Beaver Dam Commerce Park, the site of a Meta data center, Jan. 20, 2026, in Beaver Dam, Wis. Joe Timmerman/Wisconsin Watch

Business groups: National data center growth supports Wisconsin manufacturing

While the construction industry has seen strong job growth over the last year, the manufacturing sector has seen smaller gains.

Manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin increased by 1,200, from 457,200 in August 2025 to 458,400 in the same month of this year, according to state data.

While job gains in the sector have been small, some large Wisconsin manufacturers have announced major business deals or expansion plans tied to national data center construction.

Waukesha-based Generac recently announced an $8 billion agreement to supply backup power generators for Amazon’s data centers. Generac has said data centers have been a key driver for the company’s commercial and industrial sales segment, fueling investments in a new manufacturing plant in Beaver Dam, expanded production operations in Oshkosh and plans for another new plant in Sussex.

Racine-based Modine Manufacturing has also reported record revenues in recent years, driven by its data center cooling systems business.

Last week, the company held a hiring fair at its new manufacturing facility in Franklin, which opened last September. The company was looking to fill up to 300 manufacturing and engineering positions at the plant, which produces air handling units for data centers.

Nina Grimsic, a senior human resources generalist for Modine, said the plant currently runs a first shift and the company wanted to open up a second shift. She said the site has capacity for first, second and third shifts.

“We really want to get second shift up and growing and succeeding before we start talking about that third shift,” she said.

Even Foxconn — a company criticized for failing to live up to promises to create more than 10,000 manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin nearly a decade ago — has announced plans to expand its manufacturing facility and workforce in Racine County to meet demand for data center servers.

In addition to construction and manufacturing, the Milwaukee 7 regional economic development partnership estimates that the data center projects in Mount Pleasant and Port Washington will bring in $22 billion of investment and create more than 1,500 permanent jobs after construction.

Dale Kooyenga, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said data center developments — both directly and indirectly — have been critical to keeping the regional economy afloat in southeast Wisconsin.

He said those projects are important for bringing investment dollars from around the country, and even the world, into the state.

“There’s billions of dollars being spent just on those two sites directly,” he said. “If we didn’t have those two large projects going on, our economy would not be having the same growth rate it would otherwise have.”

Construction industry drives Wisconsin job growth amid data center developments was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.