Washington Examiner columnist Salena Zito highlighted the importance of data center jobs in states such as Pennsylvania, but added that blue-collar workers need “ambassadors” to help access those opportunities.
“On one side, you have the fear factor. People are afraid of the unknown, the destabilization. They’ve been told for four or five years, ‘AI is going to take your jobs away,’” Zito said on Fox Business’s The Bottom Line on Tuesday.
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Zito said fear that data centers are going to deteriorate water supplies, drive up electricity rates, and create noise problems has made Americans wary of the artificial intelligence and data center industry.
“On the other side, you have blue-collar workers, and especially the trades. They’re saying, ‘Look, these are opportunities, you’ve got construction work on the front end, but also you’ve got on the back end building up the tax base,’” Zito said.
Zito said Pennsylvania has the infrastructure to help both data center developers and communities that once boomed from coal-fired power plants. The electric grids built for high-voltage connections are an invaluable energy source for data centers.
“I think the fear is outweighing the practicality of it because the industry, meaning the data power centers, these guys aren’t used to working with middle America.”
Zito said workers in western Pennsylvania may want to explore data center jobs but “don’t know how to navigate people” in the same way that people in the industry don’t know how to approach blue-collar workers in the state.
“It’s almost like they need ambassadors to be able to talk to people about, ‘Look, don’t be scared,’” Zito said.
“This is the blue-collar advancement that they have been looking for for 40 years. These are good, well-paying jobs, but also, they build up the tax base and communities that have often been left behind.”
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Zito said Big Tech needs to work on its relationship with these workers to build trust.
“They absolutely can, but they need to do a better job,” Zito said.
