North American PCB Bookings Surge 25.5% in April — What It Means for Hardware Engineers

The Numbers Are In: PCB Demand Is Accelerating

The Global Electronics Association just released their April 2026 PCB industry data, and the numbers are significant: North American PCB bookings jumped 25.5% year-over-year, pushing the book-to-bill ratio to 1.24 — its strongest reading in over a year.

For those unfamiliar with this metric: a book-to-bill above 1.0 means new orders are exceeding shipments, building production backlog. At 1.24, fabricators are booking $1.24 in new work for every $1.00 shipped. This signals capacity tightening ahead.

Key Data Points

Bookings: Up 25.5% YoY, up 36.1% from March