Ministers Accused of Using 'Hugely Inflated' Jobs Figures for Data Centres
The UK Government is facing accusations of employing "hugely inflated jobs estimates" to validate the construction of hyperscale data centres across the country. Campaigners from the countryside charity Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) have highlighted what they describe as "preposterous" figures regarding employment generated by such developments.
APRS is now demanding "far more scrutiny of the claims" made by both the Government and developers concerning data centre job creation. This call to action comes as the charity publishes a comprehensive report on the issue, though the UK Government has countered that the research "fundamentally misrepresents how jobs are counted for major infrastructure projects".
Government Figures Under Fire
The controversy emerges just weeks after UK Technology Secretary Liz Kendall visited Scotland's inaugural AI growth zone in Lanarkshire, where she asserted that developments there could generate 3,400 jobs in the coming years. APRS has expressed deep concern that the Government is not accurately estimating employment numbers, citing the example of the £10 billion AI growth zone announced for Northumberland in 2024.
According to the APRS report, while the Government claimed the zone would support 4,000 jobs, "later clarification revealed that this total included 1,200 construction roles and 2,700 indirect and induced jobs, meaning the data centre itself would only directly employ 100 people". This discrepancy has raised serious questions about the transparency and accuracy of official job projections.
Comparative Analysis with US Data
APRS conducted a detailed analysis of data centre employment in northern Virginia in the United States, which hosts the "largest accumulation of data centres in the world, constituting 13% of all reported data centre operational capacity globally". The findings revealed that investment into data centres totalled 71 billion US dollars (£53.4 billion) over the past decade, significantly overshadowing investment in other sectors such as manufacturing, which received 34 billion US dollars (£25.6 billion).
APRS, which is already advocating for a moratorium on new hyperscale data centres in Scotland, stated: "Data centre investment was extremely ineffective in creating jobs, creating only three jobs per 100 million US dollars invested." In stark contrast, manufacturing in the same area generated 168 jobs for an equivalent investment, highlighting a substantial disparity in employment efficiency.
Call for Greater Accountability
APRS director Kat Jones emphasised the need for accountability, saying: "It's about time the hyperscale data centre developers were called out on their ludicrously inflated job projections. Data centres famously employ extremely few people, and have enormous environmental impacts, so we should expect more scrutiny of exactly what benefits hyperscale AI data centres would bring to Scotland."
Jones further explained: "We have found that data centres tend to employ far fewer than 100 staff, usually between 20 and 50, but we are being told that the proposed hyperscale data centres will each create thousands of jobs. Developers and the UK Government seem to be taking the actual estimate of jobs, adding temporary construction and indirect employment, and then assume that each of these jobs create up to six additional jobs. This is the only way we think it would be possible come up with these preposterous figures."
She concluded with a strong message: "The developers and the Government need to stop using hugely inflated jobs estimates to justify these hyperscale data centres. They will have to find a more plausible reason to legitimise the sheer quantities of energy, land and water that will be diverted from the Scottish economy at large, to the purpose training US big tech's AI models."
Government Response
A UK Government spokesperson defended the approach, stating: "This report fundamentally misrepresents how jobs are counted for major infrastructure projects. We have never claimed that thousands of people will work inside a data centre day to day. Our figures include construction, supply chain and wider jobs across the economy, which are real roles that bring real benefits to local communities."
The spokesperson added: "AI data centres are enabling infrastructure, like energy networks or transport. Judging them solely on permanent on-site headcount ignores the investment, capability and job opportunities they unlock. The alternative is to send that growth and those jobs overseas, while buying back the compute from abroad."
This ongoing debate underscores the tension between technological advancement and rural preservation, with both sides presenting starkly different perspectives on the economic and environmental impacts of hyperscale data centre developments.
