Construction Powered Half of Wisconsin's Job Growth Over the Past Year

Wisconsin added 10,500 construction jobs between August 2025 and August 2026 — more than half of the 19,400 total non-farm jobs the state gained over that period, according to the state Department of Workforce Development. The sector now accounts for 156,500 jobs statewide, and a large share of that demand traces back to a handful of data center campuses.

Microsoft completed the first phase of its Mount Pleasant campus this year, while construction continues on campuses in Port Washington and Beaver Dam. The state agency does not have the "specificity of data" to break out exactly how many construction jobs tie to data centers, said Scott Hodek, an economist at the Department of Workforce Development. But he pointed to broader forces: post-pandemic demand and companies accelerating building projects to get ahead of future cost increases.

"We're seeing a lot of growth in construction in general, and that's all across the board," Hodek said. "Honestly, that's generally a good sign when you're still seeing construction, even though materials and labor costs are up."

What the projects mean in headcount

For skilled trades workers, the numbers are concrete. Chris Mambu Rasch, executive director of Building Advantage, a labor management association for the union construction industry in southeast Wisconsin, said the two data center campuses in that region "are essentially 100 percent union construction" projects.

Microsoft's first Mount Pleasant phase employed roughly 3,000 union construction workers at peak, with about 10,000 workers cycling through the site over two years. Phase two is already "pretty heavy" into construction, Mambu Rasch said, with one union alone sending 600 workers to the project. In Port Washington, between 2,500 and 2,800 union construction workers are on site, a figure he expects to exceed 4,000 at peak. Meta says its Beaver Dam campus would support approximately 1,000 construction jobs.

He described a "decade-long runway" for union construction: Microsoft plans 15 more buildings in Mount Pleasant, the Port Washington project is only in its first phase, and developers are eyeing additional sites in the state. Contractors are responding by bringing on a record number of apprentices — Wisconsin has set an apprenticeship record four years running.

"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."

The power buildout follows

The data centers are also driving construction of power infrastructure. A draft report from state regulators found peak electricity demand in Wisconsin could rise by more than 40 percent by 2032, with more than 70 percent of that increase tied to data centers. WEC Energy Group, parent of We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service, has secured 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 pipeline. More than 3,000 people will be employed during that construction, spokesperson Brendan Conway said.

Manufacturing gains lag, but deals are landing

Manufacturing tells a different story. The sector added just 1,200 jobs year over year, growing from 457,200 in August 2025 to 458,400 in August 2026, state data shows. Yet data center demand is reshaping individual employers. Waukesha-based Generac announced an $8 billion agreement to supply backup generators for Amazon's data centers and is investing in a new Beaver Dam plant, expanded Oshkosh operations and another planned facility in Sussex. Racine-based Modine Manufacturing, reporting record revenues driven by data center cooling systems, held a hiring fair last week for up to 300 manufacturing and engineering positions at its Franklin plant, which opened last September and currently runs only a first shift. Even Foxconn — long criticized for falling short of its promised 10,000-plus Wisconsin jobs — has announced plans to expand in Racine County to meet demand for data center servers.

The Milwaukee 7 regional economic development partnership estimates the Mount Pleasant and Port Washington projects will bring $22 billion in investment and more than 1,500 permanent post-construction jobs. Dale Kooyenga, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said the projects have been critical to keeping the regional economy afloat. "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," he said.

The growth comes despite public resistance: a Marquette Law School Poll of Wisconsin residents released in August found 67 percent support a ban on data center development for at least a year, ranking the issue above abortion policy, public schools and crime. With Microsoft's expansion approved and the Port Washington project still in phase one, construction employment in the state appears positioned to keep climbing as the buildout, and the power infrastructure behind it, continues.