Construction accounts for half of Wisconsin job growth

Construction supplied more than half of Wisconsin’s non-farm job gains over the last year, adding 10,500 jobs as major data center campuses and energy infrastructure projects advanced across the state.

Wisconsin added 19,400 total non-farm jobs from August 2025 to August 2026, according to the state Department of Workforce Development. Construction employment reached 156,500 in August, the latest month with available data.

The gains far exceeded those in manufacturing, which added 1,200 jobs over the same period. But state officials caution that construction’s growth cannot be attributed solely to data centers.

Scott Hodek, an economist at the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, said several factors are contributing to construction activity statewide. The agency does not have the "specificity of data" needed to isolate jobs tied to data centers.

Demand carried over from the COVID-19 pandemic, Hodek said, while persistent inflation has encouraged more companies to proceed with projects before costs rise further.

"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."

Thousands of workers on data center sites

Business and labor leaders point to data centers as an important source of work, particularly in southeast Wisconsin, where two of the state’s three major data center projects under construction are located.

Chris Mambu Rasch, executive director of Building Advantage, a labor management association for the union construction industry in southeast Wisconsin, said the campuses in Mount Pleasant and Port Washington "are essentially 100 percent union construction" projects.

Microsoft completed the first phase of its Mount Pleasant campus earlier this year. According to Mambu Rasch, around 3,000 union construction workers worked on that phase at its peak, with roughly 10,000 workers cycling through the site over a two-year period.

He said the second phase is expected to "see similar numbers" and is already "pretty heavy" into construction. One union has sent 600 workers to that project alone.

The Port Washington site currently has between 2,500 and 2,800 union construction workers, he said, with "well over 4,000" union jobs expected at peak construction.

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

Meta, which is developing the Beaver Dam campus, has said that project would support "approximately 1,000 construction jobs."

Mambu Rasch sees a "decade-long runway" for union construction growth tied to data centers. Microsoft plans to build 15 more in Mount Pleasant, he said, while the Port Washington development remains in its first phase. Developers have also expressed interest in other Wisconsin sites.

"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."

Energy projects add another source of work

The construction activity extends beyond the data center campuses. New power plants and electric infrastructure are being developed to meet an expected increase in electricity demand.

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

Mambu Rasch said union workers generally build the state’s power infrastructure, including natural gas plants, solar farms 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.

The Mount Pleasant and Port Washington campuses fall within We Energies’ service territory. Its parent company, WEC Energy Group, has received regulatory approval for 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 investor presentation.

"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."

Other WEC Energy Group proposals await regulatory approval, including seven solar projects and a pair of natural gas plants in Kenosha and Walworth counties.

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

Manufacturing gains remain smaller

Wisconsin manufacturing employment rose from 457,200 in August 2025 to 458,400 in August 2026. Although those gains were smaller than construction’s, several manufacturers have announced deals or expansions connected to data center development nationally.

Waukesha-based Generac recently announced an $8 billion agreement to supply backup power generators for Amazon’s data centers. The company says data center demand has helped drive its commercial and industrial sales, supporting investment in a new Beaver Dam manufacturing plant, expanded Oshkosh production operations and plans for another plant in Sussex.

Racine-based Modine Manufacturing has reported record revenues in recent years, driven by its data center cooling systems business. Last week, it held a hiring fair seeking to fill up to 300 manufacturing and engineering positions at its Franklin facility, which opened last September and produces air handling units for data centers.

Nina Grimsic, a senior human resources generalist for Modine, said the plant operates a first shift and the company wants to establish a second. The facility has capacity for three shifts.

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

Foxconn has also announced plans to expand its Racine County manufacturing facility and workforce to meet demand for data center servers.

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

Economic support meets public opposition

The expansion has proceeded despite widespread public opposition. In a Marquette Law School Poll of Wisconsin residents released in August, 67 percent of respondents said they wanted to ban data center development for at least a year. Among voters questioned, data centers ranked as a bigger community issue than abortion policy, public schools and crime.

Dale Kooyenga, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said the developments have nevertheless been critical, directly and indirectly, to keeping southeast Wisconsin’s regional economy afloat. He said they bring investment into the state from around the country and the world.

"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.

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