THE BOTTLENECK REPORT · ISSUE 02 · Q3 2026

SIXTY PER CENT OF YOUR BUILD COST SITS WITH ONE DISCIPLINE. IT'S THE ONE YOU CAN'T STAFF.

MEP services account for roughly 60% of what a Data Center costs to build. This quarter our analysts scored the market for the engineers who deliver it, on both sides of the Atlantic, and the two regions landed on exactly the same Scarcity Score for completely different reasons. This is the first issue of The Bottleneck Report to cover one role in two regions.

This quarter’s bottleneck role: MEP ENGINEERS

79

Scarcity Score / 100 in BOTH regions

60

%
of Data Center build cost is MEP

5805

Live postings analysed across US and EMEA

THE REPORTS

SAME ROLE. SAME SCORE. TWO DIFFERENT PROBLEMS.

Both regions scored 79 out of 100. In the US that is a volume and speed problem. In EMEA it is a pay problem and a distribution problem. Pick the region your programme sits in.

US EDITION

UNITED STATES

1,539 identified engineers against 2,718 live postings, and advertised pay only 2.6% above a matched benchmark. The market is short but it has not repriced, which makes this a volume and speed problem rather than a pay problem.

  • Scarcity Score 79 out of 100, High Scarcity
  • 1.77 postings per identified engineer
  • Michigan, New Mexico, Indiana and California in Critical Scarcity
  • Nearly half the workforce already works for an out-of-state employer

EMEA EDITION

EMEA

3,964 identified engineers against 3,087 live postings, and UK advertised pay 29% above a matched benchmark. This market is already paying up and is still short, because the engineers are not where the demand is.

  • Scarcity Score 79 out of 100, High Scarcity
  • Italy, Germany, the UK and Ireland in Critical Scarcity
  • 61% of the EMEA pool works in the Gulf, against 27% of the adverts
  • A threefold demand gap between Europe and the Gulf