43 essential resume statistics

Key takeaways

• Nearly 100% of employers agree that skills-based hiring is more effective than relying on resumes.

• 42% of employees feel they “have trouble standing out from the crowd” when submitting resumes in job applications – which is part of the reason why nearly 70% prefer skills-based hiring. 

• A third of employers are screening resumes after they use other skills-based hiring methods, while two-thirds are screening resumes before they use skills-based hiring methods. The third that use skills-based hiring first are more satisfied with their hires. 

Statistics about employer attitudes towards resumes

In 2023, we surveyed 3000 employers and employees. One finding? Employers were realizing that resume screening was a flawed hiring tool:

1. 34% of employers said they received too many resumes to read.

2. 43% of employers said they found it difficult to rank candidates using resumes.

3. 43% of employers said they struggled to determine an applicant’s skills from their resumes.

4. 51% of employers said they struggled to determine whether the resumes of their applicants were accurate.

That said, our report also revealed that over three quarters of employers had used resumes in the previous 12 months for hiring purposes – despite knowing their flaws. 

Now, fast-forward to 2024: Many employers are still using resumes, though more and more are accepting that skills-based hiring is the way forward. 

Skills-based hiring involves replacing – or supplementing – traditional recruitment methods with methods that can help you understand the true nature of a candidate’s skills. For instance, instead of relying on resume screening alone, you might supplement this tool with skills-based tests that assess candidate’s skills. Or, instead of requiring a certain degree or level of experience for a role, you might instead ask for a portfolio of work and an on-the-job trial period. 

Here’s what our 2024 report revealed about resumes and skills-based hiring: 

1. 98% of employers agree that skills-based hiring is more effective than relying on resumes. 

2. 98% of employers also agree that skills-based hiring is more effective for identifying talented candidates than resumes.

3. 94% of employers believe that skills-based hiring is more predictive of on-the-job success than resumes. 

4. 95% of employers agree that skills-based hiring is the dominant recruitment method of the future (this means this method is taking the resume’s once-almighty place).

5. 88% of employers agree that skills-based hires stay in their roles longer than those selected without skills-based methods (such as those hired based on their resumes alone). 

Statistics about employee attitudes to resumes

Our 2023 survey revealed that employees, like employers, were also growing increasingly disillusioned with resumes:

1. 42% of employees stated that they had trouble “standing out from the crowd” when submitting resumes

2. 57% of those respondents were women

Now, compare this with what employees had to say about skills-based hiring in our 2024 report: 

• 68% of candidates prefer a skills-based hiring approach over other recruitment methods (like resumes) – an increase of 12% from last year’s survey. 

• 85% of these candidates say they prefer skills-based hiring because it gives them a chance to showcase their skills.

• 67% prefer skills-based hiring since it gives an indication of the types of skills they’ll be using in the job. 

• 45% prefer skills-based hiring because they believe it reduces bias.

The stats are clear: Employers that use resumes as a sole screening tool don’t give employees a fair chance to showcase their true skills, and employees know this. This is why employees are increasingly preferring skills-based hiring methods that give them a chance to show what they can do – including skills-based assessments that enable them to prove they possess the skills needed for the role.

Resume usage statistics

In 2023, we found that:

1. 82% of employers had used resumes to hire in the past 12 months

2. 88% of employees had submitted resumes as part of the hiring process

3. 55% of employers were using resumes to validate their applicants’ hard skills

4. 39% of employers were using resumes to validate their applicants’ soft skills

Fast forward to 2024, where we’ve discovered that 81% of employers are using skills-based hiring (this figure was 73% in 2023). Here are some stats focused on employers who use skills-based hiring alongside resumes: 

1. 33% of employers are screening resumes after using skills-based hiring methods.

2. 67% of employers are screening resumes before using skills-based hiring methods.

3. The 33% who use skills-based hiring methods before screening resumes are happier with their hires.

4. 87% of employers who use skill-based assessments before they use resumes feel satisfied with their hires. (Skills-based assessments are tests – usually online tests – that enable you to assess candidates’ job-relevant skills and qualities.)

5. Meanwhile, 78% of employers who use assessments after resume screening are satisfied with their hires.

The takeaway? Screen resumes after assessing skills. This reduces any hiring bias that might otherwise creep in during the resume screening process, like favoring a candidate because they went to a noteworthy school even if they don’t possess the skills the role demands. Plus, you’re likely to be happier with your hires. 

More resume statistics

Check out what others are saying about resumes:

The time it takes to create a resume is seconds to weeks

1. Optim Careers, a company that mentors job seekers, states that it takes the average person over 30 hours per week to write and update their resume. This is because resume writing is a very particular genre of writing, and resumes must be continually tailored to each job a job seeker applies for. The more knowledge someone has of this genre, the less time they’ll spend writing. 

2. Meanwhile, Zety has analyzed over 11 million resumes created with its resume builder and found that resumes took, on average, just 15.25 minutes to create. This shows the power of tech in speeding up the process.   

3. AI tools like ChatGPT can generate complete resumes in minutes or less. For example, we asked ChatGPT to generate a full resume for an R&D engineer, and it took just 31.4 seconds. 

With the amount of time it takes to write resumes with tech assistance, it’s no wonder that so many candidates are turning to human resume writers, resume builders, and AI for help creating their resumes. 

Recruiters are spending seconds to minutes to review resumes

Here are some interesting stats from a 2024 survey of hiring managers and recruiters conducted by ResumeGo.

According to the survey, here’s how long hiring managers and recruiters spend reviewing resumes: 

1. 1% of respondents spend less than 10 seconds

2. 33% spend 10-30 seconds

3. 47% spend 30-60 seconds 

4. 11% spend 1-2 minutes

5. 3% spend 2-5 minutes 

6. 4% spend 5-10 minutes

Here are some more interesting stats from the survey: 

1. 42% of respondents almost always skim resumes instead of reading them line by line.

2. Compare this with the 2% and 3% that rarely or almost never do, respectively.

3. 24% of respondents say that they reject 81-100% of resumes before they fully finish reviewing them. 

4. Just 8% of respondents fully finish reviewing 0-20% of resumes before rejecting them. 

While these stats are certainly understandable given the time constraints and other pressures hiring managers and recruiters face, we worry that some highly qualified applicants might fall through the cracks simply because their resumes didn’t fully demonstrate their skills or potential – or weren’t easy to skim. 

This is something using skills-based assessments before resume screening can fix, as many skills-based assessment platforms – like TestGorilla – automatically score candidates for users. This means that you can understand the true breadth of your candidates’ skills before you look at their resumes – and skimming assessment scores is so much easier than skimming resumes. 

Resumes are becoming more visual 

1. A Forbes article showed that 71% of hiring managers believe that purely text-based resumes will be obsolete within five  years. 

2. Meanwhile, 60% of these hiring managers prefer visual elements in resumes. 

These stats make us worry that employers using resume screening – especially before skills-based hiring – will start favoring candidates with better design skills, even if the job doesn’t require design skills. Imagine picking a candidate for a financial analyst position simply because their resume looked better than other candidates’ – what if those other candidates possessed stronger job-specific skills? 

This is another reason why resume screening after assessing candidates for their skills is so important. 

AI-generated resumes are on the rise – and employers have mixed reactions

1. Canva surveyed 5,000 job-seekers in 2023 and learned that 45% of them had used generative AI to write, improve, or update their resumes.

2. According to Forbes, 67% of hiring managers believe they know when a resume is AI-generated. 

3. A survey of 3,000 hiring managers by resume.io found that 49% of them reject applicants for using AI-generated resumes.

4. In contrast, an MIT Sloan study found that resumes boosted by AI were 8% more likely to be selected for an interview, and these applicants were offered 8.4% higher wages than those who did not use AI in their resume. 

These stats are also worrying to us for various reasons. For example, AI-generated resumes can contain false information, which can increase the chances of someone being hired based on qualifications they don’t actually possess. On the flip side, employers who automatically reject applicants who they believe have used AI might reject highly skilled candidates who are fully capable of doing the job. 

To learn how to best navigate this, read our article about the good, bad, and ugly of AI-generated resumes.

Also, remember that skills-based hiring is a great way to verify your applicants’ skills – whether they use AI to generate their resumes or not. 

Curious to learn more about the state of skills-based hiring and resumes? Read our report

Resume screening is no longer the primary recruitment tool: Skills-based hiring has taken over as the dominant recruitment method of the future. While many employers continue to use resume screening, statistics show that those using it after other skills-based hiring methods are happier with their hires. And employees prefer skills-based hiring over resumes. 

To read the full story on the state of skills-based hiring in 2024, check out our full report. 

Want more stats? Then consider checking out 47 skills-based hiring statistics.