Over the next decade, data centers currently being planned for Illinois could generate $57 billion in new investment, create 120,000 jobs, and boost property tax revenue — mostly for schools — by $300 million per year.
These are the headlines in a study released Thursday by a pair of labor-affiliated Illinois think tanks.
The coming construction boom would build on the state’s existing role as a data center powerhouse. The Chicago region already ranks as the country’s third-largest data center market. Illinois as a whole ranks 10th among the states, with 19 data centers per 1 million people, according to the study.
Of the 120,000 new jobs projected by the study, 39,000 would be skilled construction jobs, and 3,000 would be permanent positions inside the data centers. Suppliers and nearby retailers would create the rest.
Engineers and information technology specialists inside data centers can earn $186,700 a year, the study said, citing U.S. government figures. A typical U.S. data center employs 50 full-time workers, the study said.
In addition to highlighting the economic benefits of data centers, the study acknowledged an explosive bipartisan backlash. The authors cited a string of polls showing that 71% of Americans now oppose data center construction in their communities, nearly twice as many as in 2025.
“Data centers have become a major component of Illinois’ economy, driving (economic) growth, boosting employment in high-wage sectors, and contributing substantially to the property tax base,” said Frank Manzo, an Illinois Economic Policy Institute economist and a co-author of the study.
“But they also impact our energy infrastructure, water resources and state budget,” Manzo said.
The Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also helped write the study. The project’s goals, according to its website, include reducing poverty and workplace discrimination.
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In explaining the current backlash, the study’s authors said data centers now use about 7% of the state’s electricity.
The additional facilities now on the drawing board for Illinois would need 6.5 gigawatts of electricity, according to the study.
That’s equivalent to the output of six typical nuclear reactors. Under current regulations, it would be enough to boost average residential electricity bills in the state by $12 per month, or about 10%.
In an interview, the study’s authors described their $57 billion projection for coming Illinois data center investments as a conservative estimate.
But they acknowledged considerable uncertainty on, among other things, whether the state’s internet privacy laws will encourage some data centers to locate elsewhere.
In May, Goldman Sachs said only 50% to 60% of planned data center capacity will come online as expected in the next two years amid delays and cancellations.
In their study, Manzo and his co-authors also proposed a series of public policy changes to help Illinois navigate this tense political landscape. These include capping residential electricity rate increases at 5% per year.
The state could also require data centers to use closed-loop cooling to preserve water; speed up grid connections for data centers that build their own clean power sources; ban nondisclosure agreements between data centers and public officials; and bar local communities from offering their own data center tax incentives to mammoth companies like Google and Microsoft, the study said.
In just three towns near O’Hare International Airport, data centers received abatements and reduced property valuations that cut their tax bill by nearly $100 million, the study said, citing a baiduhai and Illinois Answers Project report.
State-level incentives for data center construction cost Illinois $983 million in tax revenue between 2020 and 2024 but helped attract $15.7 billion in investments, the study said, citing state government data.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker paused the incentives in July “to understand whether these incentives are driving development that is insensitive to consumer costs and environmental impact.”
If Pritzker reinstates the incentives, he could target them more effectively at those who meet state policy goals like conserving water, according to the study.
Legislators return for their fall session on Nov. 17, just one day after the Illinois Commerce Commission and other agencies will formally release a plan aimed at preventing electricity shortages and even higher prices they say could plague the state by 2030.
As things stand now, the agencies reported in December, neither the Commonwealth Edison service area in northern Illinois nor the Ameren service area downstate has “sufficient … resources to reliably meet 2030 requirements,” largely due to rising demand from data centers.
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At a climate conference in New York last week, Pritzker repeated his call for data centers to bring their own clean energy and to use closed-loop water systems. The governor added, “Just saying we’re going to have a moratorium, I don’t think by itself is the answer.”
John Lippert is a freelancer.