When Nicholas Bowman was in high school, he thought his next steps were already mapped: He’d get a college degree and land a stable, high-paying job—enjoying the kind of economic mobility higher education has long promised.

But as application deadlines loomed, doubt crept in. What was so great about spending four years in classrooms, taking on tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and still facing no guarantee of a solid living?

That’s when a family friend suggested a different route: an electrical apprenticeship. Bowman investigated—and it felt like a no-brainer.

He could start earning about $42,000 in his first year while taking classes just two nights a week at his local IBEW chapter in Newport News, Va. By the time he graduates as a journeyman this summer, he expects to make around $71,000—and, as he puts it, spend his days in a job that feels like he’s playing with “adult Legos.”

Bowman, now 22, is part of a growing wave of Gen Z workers reconsidering jobs once treated as not even worth their consideration: electrical work, HVAC, plumbing, and other skilled trades. Part of that shift is cultural—there’s less stigma, more TikTok visibility, and more open talk about student debt and wages. But part of it is economic: Many entry-level white-collar jobs are feeling more like pits than ladders. Companies have been rethinking their hiring practices as questions around the future of work spiral in the wake of the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence.

What feels like a lifeline for twentysomethings like Bowman—an affordable path to a stable career—has become what the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) calls a “life or death” situation for companies like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft: Without an army of electricians to build out data centers, the future of U.S. economic growth could be in jeopardy.

Projections suggest that more than 300,000 new electricians are needed over the next decade to meet AI-driven demand, particularly as a large share of today’s workforce is approaching retirement. Nearly 30% of union electricians are between the ages of 50 and 70; about 20,000 electricians are expected to retire each year, or roughly 200,000 over the next decade.

That means that to meet the lofty expectations around AI, the country needs hundreds of thousands of Nicholas Bowmans. And Big Tech and local electricians’ unions are pulling out all the stops to find and train them.

The data center boom hits a speed bump

Data centers—warehouse-size facilities packed with servers, power gear, and cooling equipment that provide computing power—are nothing new. They have been spreading across the world since the early 1990s, powering everything from your iPhone’s camera to international financial markets.

What’s changed in recent years is the speed and the scale at which they are being built. McKinsey estimates data center investment could reach a cumulative $6.7 trillion globally by 2030 to meet AI-driven demand—triggering a wave of construction unlike anything the industry has seen.

A single data center can be 40% to 50% larger than an average Walmart Supercenter and require up to 1,500 workers during peak construction. And as companies race to build ever more powerful AI models, those facilities are getting bigger still. Meta’s Hyperion AI data center project, for example, is expected to reach four times the size of Central Park.

But building at that pace isn’t just a matter of writing bigger checks. From Silicon Valley to Washington, D.C., leaders are grappling with how to add capacity fast enough while navigating permitting delays, water constraints, and community pushback.

Amid all the complexity, one constraint outweighs them all: There are not enough workers.

Associated Builders and Contractors, a trade organization, estimates the construction industry will need to attract an estimated 349,000 net new workers in 2026 alone to meet demand for its services. But for data centers, electrical work isn’t just one trade among many—it’s the spine of the project.

Electrical work accounts for 45% to 70% of total data center construction costs, according to IBEW—a troublesome constraint considering the supply and demand imbalances.

“The electrician shortage is quite dire,” Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Center for Technology Innovation, told Fortune. “Those people are in short supply all across the country, and this has become a leading barrier to data center construction.”

For their part, tech companies are increasingly sounding the alarm on this need. A lack of electricians “may constrain America’s ability to build the infrastructure needed to support AI,” according to a Google policy report. Microsoft has gone even further, with president Brad Smith identifying electrical talent shortages as the No. 1 problem slowing their data center expansion in the U.S.

The impacts are already showing up in logistical puzzles and construction delays. Smith said Microsoft is employing electricians who are commuting from as far as 75 miles away from their job sites—or even temporarily relocating to fill roles. Oracle, which is building out data centers for OpenAI, had to shift construction completion dates from 2027 to 2028 owing in part to labor shortages, according to Bloomberg. In a statement to Fortune, Oracle disputed that report and said its projects remain “on schedule and on plan,” and that it intends to invest in local workforce training programs to help residents step into those jobs.

Google has made similar moves. Last year it pledged $15 million and formed a partnership with the Electrical Training Alliance (ETA) to expand the pipeline of electrical workers.

The irony is hard to miss: The same companies remaking white-collar career paths with AI are discovering that their own growth may hinge on the very generation feeling the most economic whiplash from it.

AI has disrupted Gen Z’s career paths

The demand for electricians is colliding with a moment of deep uncertainty for young workers. Among college graduates from 2023, more than half were working in jobs that didn’t require a degree a year later. Unemployment among recent college graduates has also slowly climbed, to 5.6%—the highest in over a decade, not including the pandemic.

For years, the prevailing assumption was that college was the safest route to stability—even as tuition climbed and outcomes grew less curtain. A 2012 Pew Research Center survey found that 94% of parents expected their child to attend college, regardless of whether the economic payoff was clear.

That mindset, industry leaders said, helped sideline the skilled trades.

“Despite the good intentions that may have given birth to that philosophy 50 years ago that everybody had to go to college or you’re completely doomed—they treated the trades as a consolation prize,” said Brian Huff, founder and CEO of for-profit training organization Midwest Technical Institute.

Now, the math is shifting.

Enrollment in electrical programs across Huff’s four campuses in Illinois and Missouri has surged more than 400% in the past four years, to nearly 400 students. The average attendee isn’t fresh out of high school, he said, but in their mid- to late twenties—someone who tried other paths first and is now looking for something more reliable.

“It’s never been brighter than this,” said Huff, who started his own career as a welder. “The job prospects for anybody getting into this are going to be good. They were good before, but they’re even better now.”

The surge isn’t limited to private programs. According to the National Electrical Contractors Association, applications for commercial apprenticeships increased by more than 70% nationwide between 2022 and 2024, from roughly 70,000 to 120,000—far more than the number of available positions.

Ian Andrews, vice president of labor relations and large contractors at NECA, said the scale of demand tied to data centers has sparked a blue-collar boom the electrical field has waited decades to see.

There isn’t a single path to becoming an electrician, but the most common route is an apprenticeship that typically lasts four to five years. Unlike college students, apprentices earn money from day one when completing classroom instruction, often taking classes at night or in short blocks throughout the year. By the time they finish, many have years of experience—and little to no student debt.

Bowman said that tradeoff wasn’t always obvious to his family and peers.

“Most people were open-minded when I explained it, but naturally, high school pushes college,” he said. “There’s not much exposure to careers that let you start working right out of high school. I think more people could benefit from that awareness.”

The financial upside can be significant—especially in regions experiencing a surge in data center construction.

At IBEW Local 26 near Washington, D.C., which sits at the heart of the data center capital of the world—northern Virginia—membership has doubled since 2018 to more than 14,700 electricians. Apprentices start at roughly $26 an hour. By the time they complete their training, journeyman electricians earn about $59.50 an hour—more than $120,000 a year—plus benefits that often include health insurance and a pension. Add in overtime hours, or being a foreman, and electricians can make closer to $200,000 a year.

Other students begin at community colleges or trade-focused institutions, taking classes full- or part-time before being hired by a contractor. Those programs can serve as on-ramps for students who want exposure before committing to a union apprenticeship or who are transitioning from another field.

“Data centers are going to be the new oilfield,” said Nathan Hall, vice chancellor of external affairs and public relations at Delta Community College in Monroe, La. The jobs, he added, are reshaping the local economy—bringing steady income to families and expanding apprenticeship pipelines in communities that have long been overlooked.

Long hours in ditches: Being an electrician isn’t for everyone

On paper, becoming an electrician right now can look, as Bowman found, like a no-brainer: Earn while you learn, avoid massive student debt, step into strong wages, and work at the center of the AI infrastructure boom.

But it won’t be for everyone. The work can be physically demanding, with long hours on your feet. Some days you might be indoors, in air-conditioned spaces, and other days, you might be down in a muddy ditch pulling cable.

The lifestyle can be just as arduous. Add tight construction timelines, and overtime can become a norm. Work often follows the project—not the other way around.

Managing AI data center growth is “like eating an elephant,” according to Jason Dedon, business manager for IBEW Local 995 in Baton Rouge—just three hours south of Meta’s massive data center project.

“At first, that elephant tastes good, but pretty soon you’re sick of it … It’s endless. Every time you open your mouth to breathe, there’s more elephant,” Dedon said.

Data centers need huge crews during construction—and far fewer workers once they’re up and running. There will be maintenance, retrofits, and expansions, but not at the same scale as the initial build-outs. For workers, that can mean moving on when a project wraps, or facing periods without a job lined up. During the 2008 recession, for example, nearly one in four of IBEW’s construction members were out of work.

As Dedon put it: “Sick as you are of eating it, even the biggest elephant ends. Then what are you going to eat?”

For many electricians, that’s always been the tradeoff; long commutes or even weeks away from home might be tough, but it can bring higher-paying salaries.

But one added cushion for the electrician shortage is that the demand is not limited to data centers. The same skills can be transferred to other locations, like power plants, hospitals, and military bases—all of which are often undergoing new waves of electrification.

That portability is why John Mielke, senior director of apprenticeship at Associated Builders and Contractors, calls the skilled trades one of the fastest paths to entrepreneurship. Experienced electricians often branch out into their own contracting businesses—an outcome that aligns with Gen Z’s growing interest in working for themselves.

For Bowman, the tradeoffs are clear—the dirt, the hours, the uncertainty between projects. But so is the payoff: steady pay, in-demand skills, and work that can’t be automated away. “The fortunate thing is AI hasn’t found a way to turn the wrench yet,” Bowman said. For now, that feels like a bet worth taking.

“We have historically referred to apprenticeship in this country as one of the best-kept secrets,” Andrews of NECA said. “And I would proclaim that it is no longer a secret. It is an open invitation to explore this career.”