Length of resumes increases by 61% as jobseekers include more sections
The length of an average resume has increased by 61% over the past five years as jobseekers try to include more sections than they did in 2018, according to a new report.
The average word count of a resume in 2023 went up to 503 words, a 61% hike from the 312 average words in 2018, according to a LiveCareer analysis of 50,000 resumes.
The extended word count has also made two-page resumes the norm for jobseekers, the report added.
Expanded sections in resumes
The longer resumes come as 66% of jobseekers add at least one additional section in their resume, expanding the previous five basic sections that include personal information, education, work history, skills, and professional summary or objective.
In 2023, more jobseekers had been including related information about certificates (18%), languages (14%), and additional accomplishments (17%).
More jobseekers are also mentioning "remote" and/or "hybrid" in their resumes, with seven per cent in 2023, reflecting the rise of alternative work arrangements over the past five years.
On the other hand, references have also gone obsolete, according to the report, with only two per cent of jobseekers still including the section in their resume.
Eric Ciechanowski, career expert at LiveResume, attributed the recent changes to the shift in the employment landscape.
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"During the period we studied, we experienced a global pandemic – which took a huge toll on some industries while others thrived –so it doesn't come as a huge surprise that job seekers have changed their approach to resume writing to meet the changes in the job market," Ciechanowski said in a statement
Leading soft, hard skills
Meanwhile, the report also found that time management has emerged as the most mentioned soft skill in recent resumes, up from its seventh position in 2018. The full list of most mentioned soft skills include:
- Time management
- Customer service
- Critical thinking
- Leadership
- Verbal and written communication
- Attention to detail
- Active listening
- Communication
- Self-motivated
- Quick learning
The report said the rise of time management as a mentioned skill comes amid the emergence of remote and hybrid workplaces, with employees underscoring a varied set of skills critical to these arrangements.
For hard skills, coding languages dominate resumes in 2023, with Python emerging as the top hard skill mentioned. The full list includes:
- Python
- JavaScript
- C
- CSS
- Project Management
- SQL
- HTML
- Java
- Excel
- MYSQL