To Make Waves In This Tough Job Market, You Need A Tough Resume!

According to a report published by the U.S. Department of Labor last month, the total number of private sector job openings has been steadily increasing since this number reached its lowest point in July 2009.  Now...this is definitely something to celebrate, especially given the financially tumultuous years that the U.S. has just fought its way through.

Now, here’s the rub…

The job opening-per-job seeker ratio is also the highest it’s ever been.  At the very beginning of the recession…in other words, before the stock market crashed in September 2008, there were 1.8 unemployed persons per job opening.  By the time the recession “ended” in June of 2009 there were 6.2 unemployed persons per job opening.  The most current data shows that today there are 5.1 unemployed job seekers per job opening. 

Hold on…it’s a little worse.

This number just divides the total number of unemployed job seekers by the total number of job openings reported nationally.  The number doesn’t factor in the total number of job applicants seeking any one position, for example the total number of employed in addition to the total number of those that are unemployed.  It also doesn’t factor that job seekers apply for multiple open positions.


Companies today are flooded with resumes for open positions that they post on job boards such as Indeed, CareerBuilder, Monster; and now via social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter; resumes that generally look the same.  Created using Microsoft Word and formatted with 12pt Times New Roman or Arial font.  Resumes with a first name, middle initial, and last name centered at the very top of the page.  And below the name that’s in bold and significantly larger than the rest of the text in the document, are bullet points, job titles, and company names.

I’m not telling you all of this to scare you or discourage you in any way; or because I’m trying to paint a dismal picture of the job market.  I’m telling you all of this because I want to motivate you; to heighten your awareness of how important it is to have a resume that kicks butt.