Until ten years ago data centers it was a term unknown to most, and reserved for professionals. Now we all know (or almost) that these are structures that act as the brain for artificial intelligence, hosting servers and IT equipment used to store and process digital data. In Italy alone there are 250, between those already built and those under construction or planned, and in the USA this number jumps above 2,700.
A study published in preprint on SSRN analyzed its impact on the US territory, trying to understand how data centers affect the employment, salaries, and electricity bills of those who live in the area, and discovering that the area in which they are located plays a central role.
More money in the city
On average, when a data center opens in the US, the host county sees a 0.9% increase in employment, a 1.1% increase in wages, a 1% increase in the number of businesses and a 0.7% increase in household income over the first three years. In the long term the overall impact grows, reaching 3.5%, 5.0%, 4.7% and 1.9% respectively.
These numbers, compared to an average investment of around a billion dollars to build a single plant, are modest. And they don’t even apply to everyone: let’s see why.
City VS countryside
The study’s most interesting finding is that metropolitan areas, not rural areas, would benefit most from the opening of data centers. The reason for this is that data centers employ different types of professionals – engineers, equipment suppliers, professional services, construction companies and skilled labor.
When a data center is built in the city, these profiles are searched directly in the area, which is equipped with them. In the countryside, by contrast, data centers tend to employ few permanent workers, and seek many of the specialized services needed outside the county. However, the study finds a small but measurable drop in the unemployment rate in non-metropolitan counties, a sign that a benefit, however limited, exists there too.
Increases in the bill
A sore point of the arrival of data centers is the increase in bill costs. A single large plant can consume as much as about 80,000 homes: consequently, electricity prices increase – according to the study by an average of 5%.
The picture that emerges is therefore twofold: on the one hand in metropolitan areas, with solid labor markets and a dense entrepreneurial fabric, data centers bring concrete economic gains, even if not enormous; on the other hand, rural communities, despite modest employment benefits, have to face an increase in energy costs.
