GoKawiilKey Takeaways Carrie Charles is the CEO of recruiting firm Broadstaff, which works with giants like Verizon and Oracle.
Charles says laid-off tech workers should pivot their careers into data center electrician and technician roles.
Job postings for data center positions jumped 64% between 2023 and 2025, per Deloitte.
A staffing chief says that tech professionals recently laid off from corporate roles should turn their attention to one booming part of the economy: skilled trades.
Carrie Charles, the CEO of recruiting firm Broadstaff, works with giants like Verizon and Oracle on their staffing needs. She told Business Insider earlier this week that her firm is now handling far more requests for highly trained electricians and technicians tied to the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. Companies need skilled workers to install and maintain data centers.
“Our phone has never rang so much in our 10 years as a staffing company,” Charles said. “The space is on fire right now — it’s wild.”
In her view, these technician and electrician roles blend the expectations of a professional, corporate environment with the practical, hands-on work of a skilled trade, making them a realistic landing spot for tech employees looking to reinvent their careers after a layoff.
“Young people, people in their 40s, getting laid off is all over the media, and it’s this massive shock,” Charles told Business Insider. “But there’s a massive opportunity over here.”
An enormous wave of data center projects, worth nearly $700 billion, is now a key force behind U.S. economic growth. One planned site is about four times the size of Central Park. Building and running these facilities takes large teams of workers.
Deloitte found that job postings for data center roles increased 64% from 2023 to 2025. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, data center employment in the U.S. jumped by over 60% from 2016 to 2023. Industry leaders say hiring still isn’t keeping up: in a survey by the Uptime Institute, an advisory organization, 54% of data center executives cited finding talent as their biggest challenge.
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