AI fever pulls Gen Z into the electrician profession

In high school, Nicholas Bowman thought his future path was set: go to college, get a degree, and find a stable, high-paying job. But as the application deadline approached, he began to have doubts. The previous path meant spending four years in class, racking up tens of thousands of dollars in student debt, and still not guaranteeing a good job in the age of AI explosion.

A friend suggested another direction for Bowman: an electrical apprenticeship two evenings a week. After researching, he decided to listen and earned $42,000 in the first year. By the time he completes the course and becomes a skilled craftsman this summer, he expects to earn about $71,000 and work all day feeling like he’s playing with “Lego blocks for adults.”

Bowman is part of a wave of reconsideration of jobs that were once of little interest to young people, such as electricians, air conditioner repairmen, plumbers and many other technical labor occupations. The reason partly comes from cultural changes, such as this occupational group is now less prejudiced, appears more on TikTok, and society discusses student debt and wages more openly.

“Gen Z is really facing a series of challenges. Social networks help them better understand jobs in new fields,” Jennifer Herrity, who tracks career trends at recruitment platform Indeed, told Business Insider.

Another reason is that the rapid development of AI makes many low-level office jobs become unstable. Last month, Amazon announced it was laying off 16,000 office workers, in addition to the 14,000 people laid off last fall. “AI and automated agents change the way we work,” the company said on its blog. In January, Pinterest announced a 15% reduction in its workforce, partly due to “reallocation of resources to AI-focused positions”.

At the World Economic Forum (WEF) earlier this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the current period is great for skilled workers because the AI ​​boom creates a huge demand for building data centers. He described the AI ​​fever as “the largest wave of infrastructure construction in human history and will require a lot of plumbers, electricians, masons, steel workers”.

Data centers — vast facilities filled with servers, electrical equipment and cooling equipment — aren’t new. They’ve been popping up everywhere since the early 1990s, providing computing power for everything from iPhone cameras to international financial markets. But over the past few years, the speed and scale of construction has skyrocketed amid the AI ​​craze. Consulting firm McKinsey estimates that global data center investment could reach $6.7 trillion by 2030, creating an unprecedented construction wave in the industry.

McKinsey predicts that by 2023-2030, the US will need an additional 130,000 trained electricians, 240,000 construction workers and 150,000 construction supervisors. “The shortage of electricians is quite serious and this is the top barrier to the data center construction process,” Darrell West, senior expert at the Brookings Center for Technology Innovation, told Fortune.

The boom in demand for electricians has coincided with a period of unrest for young workers. The July 2025 report of the Burning Glass Institute (USA) shows that after one year, 52% of students graduating in 2023 are working in jobs that do not require a degree. According to the US Census Bureau and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of November 2025, the unemployment rate for new college graduates (22-27 years old) is 5.6% – the highest level in more than a decade, not including the Covid-19 period.

The notion that “college is the safest path to a stable life” is said to still be true, but the landscape is changing. In a 2023 survey by consulting company Gallup (USA), 36% of participants had great confidence in the higher education system, a significant decrease from 57% in 2015. The 2024 Pew Research Center survey also showed that only 22% of adults think college is worth it if students have to borrow tuition.

Over the past four years, the number of students participating in the electrical engineering program at Midwest Technical Institute’s Illinois and Missouri campuses has increased by 400%. Founder Brian Huff said that the majority are not just graduating from high school but are about 25-29 years old, meaning they have tried other paths and are now looking for a more suitable job.

“Never before has the outlook for this profession been so bright,” Huff commented.

A common route to becoming an electrician is through an apprenticeship, which usually lasts 4-5 years. Unlike college students, they can earn money as soon as they complete their classes, which often take place in the evening or in short bursts throughout the year. By the time they finish, many have several years of experience and almost no student debt. Their income can be very attractive, especially in places where data center construction is booming.

However, the electrician profession is not for everyone. The job requires good physical strength and requires standing for many hours. They sometimes work indoors, but sometimes need to wade into muddy ditches to pull cables. They also often work overtime due to the rushed construction progress and have to travel to the project location, even away from home for many days.

The electrician profession is not always stable. Data centers are labor-intensive during the construction phase, but once completed and operational, the number of workers is significantly reduced. Workers must look for other projects and accept periods of unemployment.

For Bowman, the trade-offs are clear. He often works in a dusty environment, works overtime, and projects are not continuous. But in return, he has a good income, sought-after skills and a job that cannot be automated yet.

“Fortunately, AI has not yet figured out how to turn the wrench on its own,” Bowman shared.