Politiske løfter om mange nye arbejdspladser ved etablering af datacentre fra tech-giganter som Apple, Microsoft, Google og Meta stemmer ikke overens med virkeligheden. Antallet af fuldtidsansatte er relativt lavt, og en professor advarer om, at jobskabelsen ikke opvejer de samfundsmæssige omkostninger.
Apple ’s data centre is located in Viborg and employs around 50 full-time staff. Illustration: Kenneth Bagge Jørgensen/Biofoto/Ritzau Scanpix. Danish politicians repeatedly highlight the prospect of new jobs whenever they approve big tech’s data centres.
But once these enormous computer halls are up and running, there are not many jobs left. A professor emphasises that job creation is not worth “the danger we are facing. ”“It’s an apple that has fallen into our lap, and to stick with the Apple theme, we’re on cloud nine,” Torsten Nielsen , who was mayor of Viborg Municipality at the time,This prospect of hundreds—if not thousands—of new jobs is often cited as a huge benefit to society.
Among other places, in West Jutland, where Microsoft is planning to build three large data centres.
“I am very pleased when large companies as Microsoft choose to make significant investments in Denmark and help create new jobs. I am confident that this new data center region in the municipalities of Esbjerg and Varde can help develop West Denmark and contribute to growth, new jobs and even greater progress,” Stephanie Lose , then minister for economic affairs, said inIngeniøren has obtained figures from the four US tech giants–Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Apple–which together employ around 450 full-time staff across all their data centres in Denmark.
And that benefit is far from commensurate with the cost to society of having data centres in Denmark, according to Brit Ross Winthereik, professor of technology and business at DTU: “It’s quite a small number relative to the total workforce, which stands at around two million people. We’re not currently struggling with unemployment, so a few hundred jobs make no difference. I don’t think that number of new jobs is a compelling argument when you consider the cost of operating data centres in Denmark,” she emphasises. Microsoft reports that 130 full-time employees work at the company’s newly opened data centres in Roskilde, Køge, and Høje-Taastrup. Google states that there are a little over 100 people working at the company’s data centre in Fredericia. Meta refers to a one-pager for the company’s data centre in Odense, which states that the data centre “supports 175 operational jobs.
” They have declined to elaborate on whether this specifically means that there are 175 full-time employees who work at the data centre on a daily basis. Apple states that around 50 people are currently working at the company’s data centre in Viborg, and that some of them are employed by regular subcontractors.
“I promised a large number of jobs. But there have been some derivative gains during the construction process that we can’t quite quantify,” he told the media outlet.that data centres account for a large proportion of the heavy demand on Energinet, which has temporarily halted all new connections.
A large number of connection requests come from projects that are so immature that it is unrealistic to expect them to come to fruition,that data centres risk slowing down the green transition in Denmark and other projects in the queue that offer a “clear environmental benefit. ”that Microsoft’s promise of 500 permanent jobs in the municipality once the data centres become operational is the main reason behind his support for the project.
“I base my views on the figures I have for Varde Municipality, where I was elected, on the premise that I want growth and development so that the municipality can afford to provide the necessary welfare services for children, young people, and the elderly,” he writes in an email to Ingeniøren. He does not believe that new data centres come at any cost to society that needs to be weighed against the potential value of new jobs: “The only ‘cost’ I have seen so far is that some people believe there is a risk that Energinet will cut off the power supply to businesses.
I do not believe that claim is reasonable. Here in Jutland, we often find that wind turbines are shut down in windy weather because Germany is unable to absorb the electricity. The wind turbine owners are compensated for the electricity anyway. This also means that there is enough electricity in Denmark.
It just needs to be redistributed,” he writes in an email. He goes on to explain that there are five further data centre projects in the pipeline in Varde Municipality. Although politicians often cite new jobs when assessing the societal value of a new data centre, this is a completely wrong approach, Brit Ross Winthereik points out:“Today, decisions on the construction of new data centres are taken at local authority level, but this should not be the case in future.
It’s becoming too divided, and this is a national issue. ” Merima Dzanic, head of strategy and operations at the Danish Data Center Industry, told Ingeniøren last week “The entire electrical grid is under strain. There’s not enough capacity to connect everyone who wishes to be connected to the electrical grid right now or in the near future.
So I don’t think that the job creation is in any way commensurate with the danger we are facing,” Brit Ross Winthereik says, adding: “If data centres’ requests to be connected to the electrical grid mean that Danish businesses seeking to make the transition to green energy risk being unable to connect to the grid, that’s a very serious matter. ”“It is Energinet's responsibility and duty to ensure a reliable electricity supply for our welfare society.
If Energinet is under pressure, then the company must contact the local authorities and/or submit comments during the consultation phases that are part of the planning process for the construction of a data centre,” he writes in an email to Ingeniøren. Neither Google nor Meta have responded to Ingeniøren’s request for comment on the story before the publication deadline. Apple has declined to comment.
And Microsoft refers to Henrik Hansen, CEO of the Danish Data Center Industry, who in a written comment underlines that the societal value of data centres cannot be measured by full-time jobs alone: “Data centres create jobs in Denmark—both directly and, to a large extent, indirectly through construction, operations, supply chains, and the wider digital economy. If one looks solely at the number of staff at the facilities themselves, it will naturally be limited.
But that does not accurately reflect the data centres’ overall value creation,” he writes. There is a need for a more “comprehensive and evidence-based approach to how we assess different types of consumption and their value to society,” Henrik Hansen says. The Danish Data Center Industry states in an email that a large 200 MW data centre would typically require between 500 and 1500 full-time employees during the construction phase, which lasts six to eight years.
Once the data centre is operational, it is estimated that it will employ between 150 and 250 people. According to the Danish Data Center Industry, the sector supported 5400 jobs in 2024, of which 2500 were related to the operation of data centres and 2900 to their construction.
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