U.K. think tank says AI data centers will create far fewer jobs

U.K. think tank says AI data centers will create far fewer jobs

Wed, September 9, 2026 at 3:57 PM GMT+3 2 min read

A U.K. think tank challenged the employment figures underpinning Britain's data center expansion on Wednesday, estimating that planned facilities will create roughly a quarter of the jobs the industry has projected.

According to Verdant, the U.K.'s current data centers account for roughly 4,400 direct jobs — a fraction of the 24,300 that tech trade association techUK has claimed. Looking ahead, Verdant puts the number of permanent operational positions at planned facilities at around 10,400 by 2035, well short of the 40,200 techUK has forecast.

The gap stems from a disputed formula. TechUK's projections rely on a figure of 8.5 jobs per megawatt of processing capacity, which Verdant said is drawn from older, smaller facilities that required more staff. Verdant arrived at a capacity-weighted figure of roughly 1.2 operational jobs per megawatt by reviewing planning applications and public staffing disclosures for 20 U.K. data centers in the pipeline. Verdant further observed that automation will reduce headcounts at the next generation of larger sites, and that techUK's headline number captures workers — such as contractors and supply-chain staff — who are never based at the facilities.

Verdant also took aim at the employment rationale for expansion, pointing out that data centers yield comparatively little work per unit of electricity consumed — with steelworks, car plants, hospitals, and schools each supporting far more jobs per megawatt — a disparity it said matters given tightening pressure on U.K. energy and water resources.

TechUK disputed Verdant's findings, according to CNBC. "The figures were built transparently from the best available industry data at the time, and we are confident they remain a reasonable estimate of the sector's employment contribution," the association said. TechUK added that Verdant relied on an unreliably small sample and excluded the broader economic value of services that data centers support.

A U.K. government spokesperson also pushed back, according to CNBC, calling Verdant's jobs-per-megawatt metric "deeply misleading" and arguing the report discounts the wider economic value of compute infrastructure and the national security case for building critical digital capacity in Britain. The U.K. government designated data centers as critical national infrastructure in 2024.

Verdant, which called for tighter controls on data center development, recommended a pause on new construction until a national framework establishing clear need and use cases is in place, along with firmer policy on access to electricity and water during the planning process.

The report arrives as data centers face growing public resistance on both sides of the Atlantic. States that once used tax incentives to attract facilities from companies including Amazon, Meta, and Google have been pulling back those incentives amid constituent concerns over electricity costs, grid reliability, and water use.