Due to Data Center Projects, Construction Industry Accounts for Around Half of Non-Farm Job Growth in Wisconsin

Friday, October 2nd, 2026 -- 9:00 AM

(Joe Schulz, Wisconsin Public Radio) 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.

According to Joe Schulz with the Wisconsin Public Radio, 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.

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