How to Deal with Unemployment on A Resume

For a while there at the beginning of this year, it was starting to look like we were entering a new period of job growth that would drastically slash the unemployment rate and herald the rebirth of prosperity.

And then it stopped. Or at least it slowed down dramatically. The most recent jobs report showed that tens of thousands fewer jobs were created than expected, leaving unemployment hovering over 8 percent.

Doesn’t sound like good news, does it? But at least in one way, it can be beneficial for you if you currently find yourself hunting for a job. How? Because being unemployed isn’t as big of a stigma right now as it has been in the past.

Still, that doesn’t mean that you should call attention to gaps in your employment if you don’t have to. For small gaps in your job history, try only listing the years that you were employed at a company on your resume and omitting the months. Unless you’re expressly asked to do otherwise, it’s generally considered okay to do this, and it can be great if you’ve been unemployed for less than a year, because a prospective employer might not ever know there was a gap in your employment.