A Pennsylvania Tradesman Shut Down a Common Data Center Criticism With One Sentence

One of the most common critiques of data centers is that the jobs they bring aren’t “real” jobs, not because the work lacks value, but because many of those jobs are temporary. The anti-data-center crowd’s logic goes something like this: temporary jobs provide only temporary economic benefits, and that alone is reason enough to oppose construction. 

But a skilled trades worker at a Pennsylvania data center just pointed out the obvious flaw in that argument: in his line of work, every job is temporary. Whether he’s building a warehouse, a manufacturing plant, a refinery, or a data center, the assignment ends when the project is finished. That’s how construction works.

If temporary construction jobs were grounds for rejecting a project, America would have a lot less infrastructure, and a lot more workers twiddling their thumbs.

LMAO. Reporter tries the 'data center jobs are temporary' line on a Pennsylvania tradesman literally building one. His answer: “Every job in my field is temporary.” https://t.co/GgnlvG1Kza

— Conor Coutts (@ConorCoutts) October 6, 2026

"So when you hear data centers, what comes to mind?" a reporter asked.

"I'm working at Homer City building the new data center," the worker replied.

"People say it's only temporary. It's only when they're building it out. Then what happens?" the reporter asked.

"Hey, every job in my field is temporary," he replied.

“bUt DaTa CeNtEr JoBs ArE tEmPoRaRy” has got to be one of the more preposterous degrowth arguments out there. You know what else creates a lot of jobs while being built and fewer once completed? Refineries, pipelines, dams, parks, power plants, semiconductor fabs, warehouses, airports, roads and other infrastructure, etc. Shall we cease building those things too? Or just the scary new buildings with computers inside?

— Jesse Arm (@Jesse_Leg) October 7, 2026

The deeper problem is treating employment as the primary measure of an infrastructure project’s worth. Follow that logic, and you’re no longer asking the American economy to produce anything. You’re asking it to function as a jobs program, judged not by what it builds or enables, but by how many people it keeps on the payroll. 

That same backward logic pervades public-sector unions, especially teachers unions, and much of our political class: preserving jobs becomes the purpose, while delivering results becomes an afterthought. The economy’s purpose is to produce, build, and innovate. Jobs serve those ends. They are not an end in themselves. 

The attacks on data centers reflect that same confusion. The temporary-jobs complaint is less an argument against construction than an excuse to oppose it. So are the grievances piled alongside it: frustration with affordability, hostility toward Big Tech, anger at politicians who have failed to modernize the power grid, and a sudden environmental conscience that apparently springs to life whenever someone proposes building AI infrastructure. 

Data centers have become a convenient punching bag for frustrations that opposing their construction will do nothing to resolve. Calling that an economic argument does not make it one. The point of building infrastructure is to put it to work, not to keep it under construction forever. A country that forgets that distinction won’t ever achieve prosperity, and will begin to bring about the end of its economy.

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