Manufacturing News
November 9, 2026
November 9, 2026 · Boone County · Clark County · Story 4 of 5
DPR Construction: Data Centers and Factories Are Competing for the Same Crews
DPR Construction's fourth-quarter analysis, reported November 5, found that AI data centers and advanced manufacturing plants now draw on the same power infrastructure, technical planning, workforce and prefabrication capacity. National preconstruction leader Roel Aguilar said developers are spreading data center site searches into Indiana and other Midwest states, and that trade competition can affect a manufacturing project's schedule even when that owner's own sector demand stays flat. The local detail DPR left out: Turner, Mortenson and Faith Technologies are co-leading Meta's $10 billion Lebanon campus in Boone County, and Meta's $115 million workforce academy trains electricians who go directly into Meta's own Lebanon and Jeffersonville, Clark County sites rather than the open labor pool manufacturers draw from. The Indiana State Building and Construction Trades Council added roughly 12,000 members in two years, with 18,000 of its 87,000 members on data center jobs in 2026, and journeyman electricians there are earning $120,000-$200,000, a wage floor 2027 manufacturing capital bids will be priced against.
- Impact
- The real Indiana story DPR doesn't name: Turner, Mortenson and Faith Technologies are co-leading Meta's $10 billion Lebanon campus, and Meta's $115 million workforce academy, launched with Indiana as a pilot state, trains electricians and tradespeople who go straight into Meta's own Lebanon and Jeffersonville sites, not into the general labor pool manufacturers draw from. The Indiana State Building and Construction Trades Council added roughly 12,000 members in two years, with 18,000 of its 87,000 members working data center jobs in 2026 alone, and journeyman electricians on those projects are commanding $120,000-$200,000, a wage floor Indiana manufacturing capital projects bidding in 2027 will be priced against.
- Watch
- Whether your EPC or general contractor also carries in-state data center backlog, that won't show up in the bid price, but it will show up in superintendent and foreman availability.
- For the huddle
Have we audited whether our contractors bidding on 2027 capital projects are also committed to Indiana data center work at Lebanon or Jeffersonville, and if so, what does that do to our actual schedule risk versus the bid?
Yes. Meta's workforce academy trains electricians who go straight into its own Lebanon and Jeffersonville sites rather than the open labor pool, and journeyman electricians on those jobs are earning $120,000-$200,000. That wage floor will show up in your 2027 bids and in whether your contractor's superintendents are actually available when your schedule needs them.
Sources
- Data centers and advanced factories now compete for the same crews, DPR says · marketscale.com
Earlier coverage
- China's Solar Export Controls Put Jeffersonville's HJT Cell Plant on the Clock
- Indiana Foreign Trade Zone Tariffs Relief Drives a 53% Membership Surge
- Indiana's 25.8% Industrial Property Tax Jump Sets Up Higher 2027 Bills
- IURC Eminent Domain for LEAP Transmission Lines Clears Despite OUCC Objection
- Meta and Be Pro Be Proud Bring Trades Simulators to Jeffersonville
From the brief, November 9, 2026
- NexPoint Closes Burkville, Alabama Plant, Consolidates in Mount Vernon's Posey County
- The Andersons' $915 Million Harvestone Deal Puts Rensselaer's Jasper County Plant in Play
- Indiana Secures $18.79 Million in Apprenticeship Grants for Advanced Manufacturing
- DPR Construction: Data Centers and Factories Are Competing for the Same Crews
- CJS Automation Study: Indiana Ranks Third Nationally for Automation Job Risk
This story
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