The picture is tight, and it has been for a while. In 2025 there were 55,000 unfilled long-term vacancies in UK manufacturing, costing the economy £6bn in lost output every year, according to Make UK's Industrial Strategy Skills Commission Report 2025. That backlog carries straight into 2026, and it shapes what employers are willing to pay for roles like panel building.
Skills gaps sit at the heart of the problem. Manufacturers rank skills shortages (75%), recruitment (36%) and talent retention (32%) as their top barriers to growth, according to Barclays Corporate's research on the skills shortage in UK manufacturing. When three of the biggest obstacles to growth are all about people, pay for scarce technical skills tends to hold firm or rise.
The wider engineering market tells the same story. 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list, according to the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Panel builders sit squarely in that hard-to-fill technical band.
Two forces are pushing pay for experienced panel builders in 2026: scarcity and movement. On movement, 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026, according to recruitment firm Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report surveying over 500 employers and 1000 candidates, reported by Engineering and Technology Jobs (IET). When most skilled people are open to a move, employers compete harder to keep and attract them.
The pipeline problem makes it worse at the junior end. In engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap, according to GOV.UK's snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK. Fewer people are coming in at the bottom, so the supply of future experienced panel builders is thinning, which keeps upward pressure on pay for those already qualified.
Pay varies by route in as well. Pay for engineering professionals on the Skilled Worker route is broadly in line with the UK average, according to the Migration Advisory Committee's report on professionals in IT and engineering. For employers reading live postings, that means headline manufacturing engineering pay tends to track national norms rather than the outliers seen in parts of tech.
Start with speed. With 79% of technical professionals open to a move, according to Engineering and Technology Jobs (IET), good people are in several conversations at once. A slow process loses them. Shortlist quickly, book interviews early, and keep the person informed at every step.
Be precise about the work. Panel building covers everything from wiring and termination to reading schematics and testing. Spell out the standards, the sectors you serve and the kit involved. A clear posting attracts the right applicants and filters out the wrong ones, which matters when 76% of engineering employers already struggle to recruit for key roles, according to the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Plan for retention from day one. With retention named a top-three barrier to growth by Barclays Corporate, the hire is only half the job. Offer progression, training and a clear reason to stay, and grow your own talent to soften the thin entry-level pipeline flagged by GOV.UK.
When skilled people are moving and the right panel builder is hard to find, speed and reach decide the outcome. We search 15 million candidates and build a ranked shortlist in under 30 seconds, contact matched people in under a minute, and can book an interview in under three minutes. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost, through Reed.ai. Ready to fill your next panel builder role? Start hiring with us today.
