Thanks for the replies. I actually did look for a solution before I posted, but clearly not well enough.
The solution @trounces posted earlier on this forum worked for me. He wrote:
"
Go to System Tools > Session and Startup > Application Autostart > Add+
Name: Start taskbar
Command: xfce4-panel
Trigger: on login
Reboot the machine and taskbar appears automatically again with all the icons including network icon which did not appear when I manually started the taskbar later on.
"
Problem solved. Thanks!