How to Address Employment Gaps in Resumes

Strategic job seekers want to know how to explain employment gaps, or if unemployment gaps will look bad to prospective employers or recruiters. Many people have employment gaps of six months or less, while others have been out of the workplace for years.

The truth is that very few people – even hiring managers and recruiters – have a perfect, linear career history. 

In this article, we will discuss how to best handle each situation that led to gaps in employment. We also have resume samples with gaps in employment. By the end of this article, you will know how to address employment gaps in your resume.

What is an employment gap on your resume?

Employment gaps on your resume denote any period of time you were away from the workforce and can range from a matter of weeks to any number of years. Sometimes these gaps in employment are caused by getting fired due to performance issues or quitting a job, while other reasons for being unemployed may include caretaking, personal health concerns, or long-term traveling.

The bottom line is if there is some empty time between when you left one job and started another, that’s a gap and you’ll likely have to explain why it exists.

Why do employers care about employment gaps?

A lot of people wonder why they have to explain employment gaps on their resumes. Why do hiring managers and employers care that you took some time off work? 

There are several things they want to know: 

For example, if you were unemployed for a month or two twenty years ago, odds are that your prospective employer won’t care. On the other hand, if the gap is more recent and longer in duration – over six months – you need to have a plan to address this concern.

Employers and hiring managers also want to know the reason for the employment gap. If you have a habit of quitting your jobs, resulting in multiple gaps on your resume, you’re going to have a more difficult time explaining why your work history is so unreliable.

On the other hand, if you have a good reason for the gap, your unemployment on your resume will be far easier to explain. Good reasons include taking time off to care for your mother or going back to school for an advanced degree. 

Basically, they want to know that you didn’t embezzle a bunch of money from your last job and end up in jail. Of course, this is a wild example of what you’re trying to disprove when you are explaining employment gaps on your resume, but it’s important for you to know that hiring managers aren’t trying to back you into a corner to trick you into saying something that will disqualify you for an open position. 

All they really care about is what you bring to the table for their company and team. So, if your skills match and you have the basic qualifications for the job, then go ahead and apply without worrying about that gap. 

How to address employment gaps in your resume

The best way to address employment gaps is to be honest and strategic without drowning the hiring manager in explanations.

1. Don't lie

Don’t change dates in an attempt to stretch out periods of employment so that they cover up any gaps, and don't fabricate experiences. It’s unethical, and there’s a good chance that the employer will find out.

Being honest doesn’t mean excluding other relevant experiences like volunteer work or professional experience classes you’ve taken. Also, if you were off because you had to take care of a family member who was in the final stages of life, it’s okay to say that, too. 

2. Be strategic

If the employment gap on your resume is just a few months long, then you can omit the months from the timeframe listings on your resume. 

In the first example, it’s not obvious that you were out of work for six months in 2022, but in the second example it’s plain to see that there is an employment gap on your resume. 

Another strategy you can use is to only include roles on your resume that are professionally relevant to the role you want. You don’t have to include every job you’ve ever had; keep your professional experience section to the last 10 years and put other roles as a list under “Additional Career Experience.”

Here’s what that looks like:

If you opt to include an “Additional Career Experience” section, put it beneath the “Professional Experience” section and simply list the company name and the title of the role. This way, employers can see that you had other jobs, which could help explain any employment gaps on your resume before they even talk to you.

3. Don't overshare

It is so easy to provide too much information about something that’s happened in your life. This is especially true when you get into a defensive mode. The first thing to do to avoid oversharing information about employment gaps in your resume is to calm your defenses, remembering that the employer isn’t trying to trick you into saying something that will hurt your candidacy. 

Once you calm your defensive nerves, prepare a statement about what you were doing during the time you took off work. 

Here are a couple of short and sweet examples of how to explain employment gaps on your resume:

• “I took six months off work to augment what I knew about [SKILL]. I took [Class A and Class B] and am now able to perform [JOB REQUIREMENT].” 

• “I was out of pocket for a little over a year because a dear family member was diagnosed with an illness and had no one to help her. At this point, I’m ready to re-enter the workforce and leverage my background in [SKILL 1 and SKILL 2] to fulfill [JOB REQUIREMENT].”

Did you notice a trend in those two examples? They both ended with what you will be able to do for the company. Yes, the gap was addressed, and now you’ve directed the conversation back to your skills and qualifications. That’s a WIN!

4. List the gap right in line with the rest of your work history

The most common way to bring to light an employment gap is to list it just like you would any other job listing on your resume. Depending on what the employment gap on your resume was for, you could opt to include bullet points or exclude them altogether. For example:

The test for whether to add bullets or not lies in whether you did anything during your time outside the workforce that would call attention to RELEVANT skills and qualifications 

When to use these resume gap tips

If you have an otherwise strong history of employment that is marred by one noticeable gap, you can often use the chronological resume format. You should still be honest when listing your work experience, and you will need to explain gaps in employment so that the employer understands why you were unemployed.

On the other hand, if you’ve had periods of unemployment lasting for more than a year, it's hard to gloss over them – even using a functional resume format. While the functional resume format is great for minimizing the appearance of job hopping, it’s critical that you know there is a bit of a stigma associated with its use. So, use this format for addressing employment gaps in your resume only as a last resort.

Instead of using your resume to explain the gap, you can address your unemployment in another part of your job application. As you’ll see below, the cover letter can sometimes be the perfect place to address this issue.

How to use a cover letter for explaining gaps in employment

Many experts recommend that you commit to using part of your cover letter to deal with gaps. Your cover letter is your introduction to the prospective employer and your first opportunity to make a positive impression – but that also means that it can be an ideal place to dispense with potential distractions so that the hiring manager can spend his time focusing on the value you offer.

1. Don’t dwell on the negatives

Don’t lose sight of the positive benefits from your previous employment. There are lots of valid reasons for unemployment, but you can still focus on the periods of employment.

Did a personal tragedy disrupt your life and send you off in search of new meaning for your life? Skip the tragedy and focus on what you learned from that sabbatical.

Did your company shutter its doors, resulting in a lengthy period of unemployment? Give less emphasis to the closing and more on how you used your time on the unemployment line to make yourself an even more valuable hire.

2. Focus on your strengths

Your cover letter should serve as a primer for your resume. It should emphasize your strengths. Since hiring managers only care about how your abilities and character can benefit their companies, your cover letter needs to draw a straight line between your skills and the company’s bottom line.

With that in mind, try to de-emphasize small gaps and quickly explain larger periods away from the workplace. How you do that will likely depend upon the reason for the gap and what you accomplished in your time off. Here are two examples of the types of explanations that might be useful for your unique situation.

Sample cover letter explaining parental leave

“After a successful nine-year career as a computer programmer for XYZ Corp., I took maternity leave, and then completed my bachelor’s degree in business management. During that period, I have been preparing for the next step in my career development by developing the exact set of skills that your company is presently seeking.

Sample cover letter explaining a layoff

“I spent 22 years working in the widget industry, with the last seven of those years employed as a senior floor manager. After the widget industry moved its operations overseas several years ago, our plant was closed and all domestic employees were laid off. In the time since that closing, I’ve completed (insert educational accomplishment or training) to develop the skills needed for this job.”

Sample cover letter explaining medical leave

"After spending 7 years as an accountant I had to take a break to deal with an illness. During this time I read and studied all the changes to accounting principles and procedures. I've fully recovered and am really excited to join the workforce again"

We wrote a good post here on how to deal with employment gaps on your resume due to a disability.

Employment gaps on your resume are now addressed

You should be cognizant of the need to deal with work gaps, but not to the point where it paralyzes you and prevents you from focusing on the skills and positive attributes you bring to the table.

It’s valuable to remember that today’s employers are far more accustomed to work gaps than in times past. While companies of the past once hired and retained employees for life, that is a far less common occurrence today. Most workers today have career paths that include a variety of different jobs.

Still, there is a need to explain frequent gaps and gaps that last for more than a few months. What you shouldn’t do, however, is obsess over them in your resume and cover letter. Explain them in a confident manner, and then get on with the more important task of selling your skill set to that employer!

Good luck with your job search!

If you’d like, ZipJob can give your resume a once-over to make sure that any employment gaps you have on your resume are properly formatted. We’ll review it for you for free.

Recommended reading:

• What A Good Cover Letter Looks Like

• How To Format Your Resume For An ATS Test

• Why Is It So Hard to Find a Job? (+ 6 Tips)