Compass Goodyear Campus

Phoenix's broader economy is increasingly defined by semiconductor manufacturing — TSMC's Chandler fab and Intel's Ocotillo campus are reshaping the metro's industrial base — alongside long-standing aerospace and defense employers (Raytheon, Honeywell, Boeing Mesa), tourism, and finance back-office operations. Data centers grew alongside the semiconductor build-out, drawn by cheap land, abundant solar power, and proximity to the new chip supply chain. The 30 tracked facilities and 9,815 NAICS 518 jobs (reported, not estimated) make Phoenix the second- or third-largest US data center market, with Microsoft, Aligned, Vantage, Compass, and CyrusOne all operating major campuses.

The trades market is mid-sized at 105,010, but the NAICS 518 industry employment figure of 9,815 is exceptionally high relative to that base — meaning data center work claims an unusually large share of skilled trades activity here compared to most metros. HVAC technicians earn $61,170 median, slightly ahead of electricians at $61,210, and the desert climate makes precision cooling a defining operational challenge. Industry average pay of $147,178 reflects hyperscaler tenant scale.

For a trades worker, Phoenix is the closest thing to a pure data center growth market — second only to Northern Virginia in raw expansion velocity. HVAC technicians have particularly strong fit given the cooling intensity, and the semiconductor adjacency creates parallel hiring channels for electrical and facility roles.