Washington – New research from the environmental advocacy group Food & Water Watch demonstrates that common claims of robust job creation from the ballooning data center industry are grossly inflated. The research, based on the historic data center hotbed of Virginia, finds that as few as 23,000 people likely held permanent jobs at data centers throughout the U.S. as of 2024. This represented about 0.01 percent of all employment across the country, while at the same time the industry consumed more than 4 percent of all electricity usage.

The research goes further, finding that the investment required to create a permanent data center job in Virginia was nearly 100 times greater than what was required to create a job outside of that industry.

The largely unregulated data center industry, now booming across the country due to the unchecked emergence of the artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto-currency endeavors, is already causing numerous environmental, social, and economic harms in impacted communities – including skyrocketing electricity costs for families and small businesses, and serious threats to local drinking water system stability. Yet the industry regularly claims that its impact on hosting communities is beneficial due to robust permanent job creation that it brings. Food & Water Watch’s new research disproves these assertions.

“We know data centers are wreaking serious economic and environmental havoc on scores of communities across the country that are already experiencing the many harms of this unchecked, profit-hungry industry. Now we also know the industry claims of healthy job creation and economic prosperity for host communities are completely absurd,” said Mitch Jones, managing director of policy and litigation at Food & Water Watch. “We urgently need a full halt to new data center construction across the country, so state and local leaders can properly examine all manner of problems this industry brings – before it’s too late.”

Energy demand from data centers in the U.S. is expected to increase up to threefold from 2023 to 2028. Earlier analysis from Food & Water Watch found that by 2028, AI-driven data centers could consume:

• 720 billion gallons of water annually simply to cool the facilities — equal to more than 1 million Olympic-size swimming pools, or enough water to meet the indoor needs of 18.5 million American households.
• 300 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy annually — enough electricity to power over 28 million American households.

In a letter sent to Congress last month, more than 230 national, state and local organizations from across the country called for a full national moratorium on the approval and construction of new data centers.