The Datum Report

Occupation 8141 · Process, plant and machine operatives

Assemblers (electrical and electronic products)

Half of full-time assemblers (electrical and electronic products) in the UK earn more than £28,620 a year, and half earn less.

Assemblers (electrical and electronic products) wire prepared parts and/or sub-assemblies in the manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment, make coils and wiring harnesses and assemble previously prepared parts in the batch or mass production of electrical and electronic goods and components

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements. Training is typically provided on-the-job, supplemented by short courses. NVQs/SVQs in Electronic Product Assembly are available at level 1.

What the work involves

• examines drawings, specifications and wiring diagrams to identify appropriate materials and sequence of operations
• selects, cuts and connects wire to appropriate terminals by crimping or soldering
• positions and secures switches, transformers, tags, valve holders or other parts and connects capacitors, resistors, transistors or sub-assemblies to appropriate terminals by soldering
• lays out and secures wire to make harnesses and operates machine to wind heavy and light coils of wire or copper for transformers, armatures, rotors, stators and light electrical equipment
• assembles previously prepared electrical or electronic components by winding, bolting, screwing or otherwise fastening using an assembly machine or hand tools

Also called

Assembler (electrical, electronic equipment mfr) · Line operator (electrical) · Panel wirer · Solderer · Technical operator (circuit board mfr)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for assemblers (electrical and electronic products), full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 8 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Assemblers (vehicles and metal goods) · Assemblers and routine operatives n.e.c. · Routine inspectors and testers · Sewing machinists · Tyre, exhaust and windscreen fitters · Weighers, graders and sorters