Maiden’s Apple datacenter providing only marginal local jobs

Posted on 27 Nov 2011 by Justin Ruckman

Interesting piece in the Washington Post about the lack of jobs a huge data center, like Apple’s in Maiden, NC, actually brings to their host towns. In Maiden’s case, the data center only employs 50 full-time workers, and a minority of those actually live in-town.

“People from around here don’t get those jobs,” he said. “Really, furniture is the only thing I know. Those data jobs are not for us.”

That sentiment has not stopped governments from falling over themselves to attract companies such as Apple. North Carolina legislators, after debating for less than a minute, amended the state’s corporate income tax law to win Apple $46 million in tax breaks, according to published reports.

State officials concede that cloud computing does not create as many jobs as traditional industries, but they argue that construction jobs are important and that data centers are just one tactic in a host of economic development strategies, including incubating high-tech corridors and cultivating advanced manufacturers such as aerospace firms.

Still, after Facebook announced plans to open a data center in the state, North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue said, “The investment and jobs at the data center will be a boon to that region of the state.”

Read more by Michael S. Rosenwald at the Washington Post.