The Associated General Contractors and NCCER 2026 Workforce Survey drew 1,830 respondents in July and August 2026. Among the 28% of respondents performing data center work, 58% said data center projects increased competition for skilled workers, 49% reported increased wage pressure, and 36% reported greater difficulty filling open positions.
Across the whole survey, one quarter of contractors report 11 or more unfilled craft positions, 88% of firms with craft openings say filling them is hard or harder than a year ago, and nearly three quarters expect to add employees in the next 12 months.
Your graduates are not just choosing between your school and another school anymore. They are choosing between your school and a data center job that pays more, hires faster, and is being built down the road right now.
So stop selling training in general. Sell the specific trade, the specific wage, and the specific employer waiting at the end, because the data center down the street is already doing exactly that, with a bigger paycheck. If your placement pitch cannot name the wage and the employer in the same sentence, the data center's pitch will beat it.
The bottom line: general training pitches lose to specific job offers. Get specific.
Sources: AGC and NCCER 2026 Workforce Survey Analysis; Construction Dive, September 14, 2026.