Touch panel makers TPK Touch Solutions and Young Fast Optoelectronics will increase recruitments to accommodate their capacity expansions in 2011.

TPK will hire 100 new high-level executives and R&D personnel in Taiwan. The company indicated that capacity expansion is a long-term trend for touch panel makers, but headhunting has been an issue for the industry due to a relatively small pool of talent. It is not easy to find someone who already has the know-how and can start working without training, the company said.

Young Fast plans to add 1,000 new employees in 2011. Young Fast's production plant in Guanyin, Taiwan has started production of medium-size touch panels, but the remote location of the plant is making it difficult to attract new workers.

Young Fast noted that it is also looking to hire more personnel for another resistive touch plant that will be converted for capacitive touch production in 2011.

Wintek Corporation is also scheduled to ramp up capacity at its facility in Taichung, central Taiwan in 2011, which should raise demand for touch panel personnel.