Fiber, data centers, smart and connected cities, 5G in industry: the digital infrastructure sector will create a lot of jobs in the years to come.
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After nuclear, which announces the creation of 100,000 jobs in the next ten years, aeronautics, which says it is looking for 25,000 people in 2023, it is the turn of the digital infrastructure sector to warn that it will need arms, in number. Exactly 33,000 more people in France by 2030, according to a study carried out by the firm Katalyse. That is a 5% growth in the workforce each year, to reach a total number of employees of 103,000 in 2030. By digital infrastructure, we mean exactly the continued deployment of fiber, the dismantling of the copper network which enabled us to to have ADSL, the deployment of 4G and 5G, smart and connected city projects and the construction and maintenance, almost everywhere in France, of data centers, digital data storage centers.
The deployment of “local networks of connected equipment”
The challenge is in any case not in the dismantling of the copper network or in the extension of 4G and 5G. Regarding the deployment of fiber optics, the peak of connections will take place between this year and next year. There will therefore then be a drop in jobs in this sector, but this will be partly offset in the maintenance of the network, which will employ 6,500 people in 2030.
In reality, the biggest progression will concern what are called local networks of connected equipment (Relec). These are smart territories that will offer their constituents more and smarter services, ranging from transport to waste management. This requires more digital infrastructure, more fiber and local data centers. These local networks will eventually represent the largest share of jobs in the sector, with nearly 40,000 employees mobilized, a figure multiplied by five compared to today. Another vector of job creation: industrial 5G, a new way of making machines work together. It will take arms and brains to bring about this revolution.