Europe’s data-centre hiring boom is real — and so is the wage premium

Europe likes to talk about digital sovereignty. The hiring data suggests it is now also paying for it. By August 2026, data-centre job postings were above pre-pandemic levels in 10 European economies, according to Indeed, while other tech vacancies and overall job postings were lagging behind. The European Commission may want a stronger AI and cloud ecosystem; employers, more prosaically, want people who can keep the thing running.

The clearest surge came in Spain, Italy and Ireland. Using the average between December 2019 and February 2020 as 100, the index reached 260 in Spain, 237 in Italy and 210 in Ireland. Indeed economists Aubrey Woessner and Pawel Adrjan said Spain and Italy had more room to grow because they started from a low base, pointing to new AI-focused build-outs such as campuses in Aragón and projects around Milan rather than the older clusters around Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin.

The pattern was not limited to those three. The Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland all recorded rises of more than 30%, with indices of 138, 134 and 133 respectively. Belgium posted the weakest growth at 9%, followed by France at 13%. Germany rose 25% and the UK 24%. In a small but telling detail, tech job postings excluding data-centre roles were below pre-pandemic levels in nine of the 10 countries. Spain was the exception, and only by a hair: one point above its earlier level.

That gap matters because data-centre hiring is not merely growing; it is outpacing other tech hiring by a wide margin. The difference was widest in Italy, Spain and Ireland. It also helps explain why these jobs pay more. In 28 of 29 country-occupation pairs, data-centre roles offered higher advertised salaries than similar jobs in other sectors. France was the lone exception, and even there the difference was only -1% for IT infrastructure, operations and support roles.

The premium is substantial in places that are hiring hardest. In Italy, management roles in data centres were advertised at 65% more than comparable jobs elsewhere, while installation and maintenance roles paid 50% more. In the UK, management roles paid 49% more. In Germany, installation and maintenance roles paid 36% more. Employers are not being charitable; they are buying speed, and speed costs money.

Woessner and Adrjan said data-centre postings ask for more skills on average than other postings in the same field. Technical and digital capabilities, including knowledge of IT systems, software and cybersecurity, are over-represented, as are English-language requirements. Data-centre employers are also competing for the same technicians and infrastructure specialists sought by other industries moving through Europe’s digital and green transitions.

The hiring mix points to two things happening at once: existing data storage and cloud facilities still need staff, while new AI-related construction is creating fresh demand. Five occupations account for between 50% and 60% of data-centre postings in Europe: IT infrastructure, operations and support; software development; management; installation and maintenance; and project management. Yet the sector still makes up only a small share of total job postings in most countries, usually around 1% or less. Ireland is the exception, where nearly 5% of all Indeed postings now mention a data centre.

The supply side looks no less constrained. Indeed economists expect the growth phase to continue for some time, as the EU aims to triple data-centre capacity within five to seven years. One concern for employers is that these facilities are competing for technical workers who were already in short supply before the current boom. As of 2025, Germany had 529 data centres and the UK 523, followed by France with 322 and the Netherlands with 298. Italy had 168, Spain and Poland 144 each, and Switzerland 121.

Regionally, Western Europe dominates the infrastructure. Northern Europe has a smaller but strategically important presence, while Central and Eastern Europe remain more fragmented and less developed. For all the grand language about competitiveness, the practical question is simpler: if Europe wants more data centres, who exactly is going to staff them?

Written by Freya Stensrud freya.stensrud@alpineweekly.com