The rapid growth of data centers fueled by demand for artificial intelligence has created a shortage of skilled workers. Now the world's largest commercial property services provider is joining other firms in seeking a simple solution to a complex-technology hiring problem.
CBRE and Facebook parent Meta plan to create multiple U.S. training centers expected to teach thousands of technicians skilled trades to build and maintain the latest data centers. The first two training sites are set to open this summer near airports in Ohio and Indianapolis, CBRE officials told CoStar News.
Meta has 28 U.S. data centers under construction or running and is spending billions of dollars to build out its support systems. Meta Public Policy Manager Kate Ross told CoStar News the industry faces a shortage she estimates of almost 350,000 trained technicians to produce and maintain complex systems used in these digital hubs.
"We need people to support this physical infrastructure," said Ross. "To lay the fiber, develop it and ensure if something breaks, they are able to fix it quickly."
CBRE isn't the only real estate services provider addressing the talent crunch tied to building and maintaining data centers and other real estate. Rival JLL is also seeking to recruit a direct pipeline of skilled trade workers, including electricians, heating and air conditioning technicians and even plumbers as other firms step into the gap.
Global data center investment hit a record $580 billion in 2025, and expansion plans call for another $3 trillion in buildouts by 2030, according to a report from Colliers. But projects geared to supporting AI and other data-hungry technologies are facing rising headwinds and some have been delayed or canceled partly due to the ongoing lack of skilled labor.
By 2030, an estimated 2.1 million skilled trade jobs could go unfilled, with potential economic losses reaching $1 trillion annually, JLL said in a recent report. Microsoft has called an electrician shortage the single biggest challenge for its data center expansion, according to JLL's report.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects electrician employment to grow 9.5% by 2034, triple the 3.1% average growth for all occupations during that time.
Rapidly growing segment
CBRE established a new business line that took effect this year to reflect the rapidly growing impact that critical infrastructure is having for the company’s bottom line. CBRE's critical infrastructure services business segment that includes data center support services and facilities management generated $1.7 billion in revenue in 2025, CBRE said in a regulatory filing.
"We're building a capability in multiple cities around the U.S. to recruit, train and place technical people to support Meta's data center initiative," CBRE Chair and CEO Bob Sulentic told investors during the firm's quarterly earnings at the end of April.
"It is really, really hard to get those people," Sulentic added. "We're recruiting and training those people and sending them not only into CBRE's teams to support Meta, but to our competitors and others in the market."
For data centers specifically, JLL created a free training program in 2024 in collaboration with nonprofit group Nomad Futurist Foundation to train workers for these high-tech facilities. JLL even created short TikTok-style teaching videos to better engage a younger audience.
"The real estate industry, as a whole, has a role to play in being a workforce orchestrator," JLL Global Chief Operating Officer of Real Estate Management Services Paul Morgan told CoStar News. JLL has kept an eye on what the nearly 40% of skilled trade workers headed to retirement as job postings have doubled in recent years, fueled by the rise of data center development, Morgan said.
"The growth rate [around data centers] has been enormous and by that alone, you've now got more assets that you've got to maintain," Morgan said. "We just don't have the people to do it. We already had a brewing shortage [of skilled trade workers] and layered on top of that is this data center growth and now you basically have a huge problem that's going to lead to downstream issues like the potential cost of operating these facilities."
JLL's training program operates through a number of trade school campuses across the country. It differs from what CBRE is doing with Meta in that JLL doesn't have a partnership with a client and isn't building any physical training facilities.
Other firms, including data center developers and operators Equinix and Digital Realty, have similar educational programs as JLL. They are seeking to solve the talent crunch for data center workers by offering programs to local schools and working with employees to further their professional development. Morgan said he's not bothered by the competition.
"We got some good ideas, and others will have good ideas as well," Morgan said. "Perhaps we can collectively solve this problem for the benefit of the industry."
At a time when the rapid growth of AI appears to be upending careers, Morgan said skilled trade jobs have longevity.
CBRE also said that trainees through its new program with Meta for data center workers will be equipped with skills for long-term, transferable careers. CBRE sees this as an ongoing service for the firm and its clients.
"These companies we interface with do critical infrastructure and data center work [and] there's a broad base of things we can do to support them," CBRE's Sulentic said. "We expect this to be an enduring service that we provide."
Deal with Meta
Meta has invested an undisclosed amount to create the multiyear training program, called LevelUp, with CBRE.
Each training facility for data center workers is expected to have data center racks and other equipment that allows for hands-on learning for students — much like how a dental school has the chairs and tools to train those in the dental profession. More information about the training sites were not disclosed beyond the states where the first two training centers will be located.
The trained technicians could then be hired by Meta or any of its rivals that are also short on labor through CBRE, said Meta's Ross. Those workers are then expected to be deployed to start building data center projects.
In April, Meta announced its first data center facility in Oklahoma — a project valued at more than $1 billion. The Tulsa building is designed to total about 2 million square feet of space and represents Meta's 32nd data center across the globe.
Meta is beefing up its AI infrastructure even as the Menlo Park, California-based global tech giant is cutting thousands of corporate jobs elsewhere.
The Tulsa data center is expected to anchor the 2,000-acre Fair Oaks Innovation Park. Meta did not disclose the address of the yet-to-be-developed facility after the project got underway in April.
Meta President and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick said in a statement the future of AI depends on "a highly skilled U.S. workforce" to building and maintain the complex systems that will power innovation.
Even hospitality services provider Aramark is getting into the data center action, stepping up as a supplier to an undisclosed global hyperscale company through a multiyear agreement for hospitality and facility services.
The deal sparked a new platform for Aramark, which CEO John Zillmer said in a statement is expected to offer "substantial long-term growth" for the firm to support employees over extended periods of time.
Growth opportunities
CBRE Executive Vice President Alison Caplan, who has two decades of experience at the firm in various roles from recruitment to mergers and acquisitions, is leading the LevelUp training program with Meta.
Caplan helped take a spark of an idea with top leaders at Meta and CBRE and turn it into what will become the inaugural training cohort that starts on July 15. The group not only gets free technician training, but also a guaranteed job if they pass the various tests and requirements, Caplan told CoStar News.
Each training facility can accommodate about 300 trainees, Caplan said, adding the LevelUp program is expected to grow to where there are about 6,650 trainees coming through a month.
There are more than 14,000 people who have registered with CBRE as being interested in the program, according to Meta's Ross. Like other jobs and training programs, candidates will go through a screening process, including interviews and online assessments, to land a spot in the cohort.
"Everyone has different personalities," Caplan told CoStar News. "There are different types of shift work, and you have to be comfortable working indoors or outdoors. You have to be comfortable following a schedule, training and safety is critical."
Those skills, along with pride in one's work, are often more important than the tech skills, Caplan said.
"We'll teach you the hard skills, but I think if you can see yourself in our candidate profile, you're definitely a candidate for this opportunity," Caplan added. "There's a huge opportunity for growth."