17 essential resume statistics

We collected responses from 3000 employers and employees to bring you The State of Skills-Based Hiring 2023. The data paints a clear picture of the state of play when it comes to how we hire: Skills-based hiring is on the rise, and mistrust in resumes is growing – but the majority of employers are still using them.

In this blog, we’ve pulled specific data from our report to bring you 17 essential resume statistics.

Statistics about employer attitudes to resumes

In 2023, employers recognize that resumes are no longer an effective tool for hiring:

1. 34% of employers say they receive too many resumes to read

2. 43% of employers say they find it difficult to rank candidates using resumes

3. 43% of employers say they struggle to determine an applicant’s skills from their resume

4. 51% of employers say they struggle to determine whether the resumes of their applicants are accurate

5. 60% of employers still consider resumes to be an effective hiring tool

6. 42% of employers still consider cover letters to be an effective hiring tool

7. Only 13% of employers haven’t had problems when filtering resumes

Skills-based hiring vs. resumes statistics

Employers have far more faith in the effectiveness of skills-based hiring:

8. 92% of employers agree or strongly agree that skills-based hiring is more effective at identifying talented candidates than resumes

9. 89% of employers believe that skills-based hiring is more predictive of on-the-job-success than resumes

Statistics about employee attitudes to resumes

Employees, too, are growing increasingly disillusioned with traditional hiring practices:

10. 42% of employees agree that they have trouble “standing out from the crowd” when submitting resumes

11. 57% of these respondents were women

12. 40% of employers say that filtering candidates by their resume and cover letter is a difficult part of the hiring process

13. 78% of candidates say it takes them 2 hours or more to prepare their resume for a job application

Resume usage statistics

Despite this, resume usage remains stubbornly high: 

14. 82% of employers have used resumes to hire in the past 12 months

15. 88% of employees have submitted resumes as part of the hiring process

16. 55% of employers are using resumes to validate their applicants’ hard skills

17. 39% of employers are using resumes to validate their applicants’ soft skills

For the rest of the story, read our report

To read the full story on the state of skills-based hiring in 2023, check out The State of Skills-Based Hiring. Head to chapter 9 for a section about employer loyalty to resumes, and discover why it’s time they went all-in on skills-based hiring. Alternatively, for a quicker read, explore 47 skills-based hiring statistics.