How to Handle Employment Gaps on Your Resume

Employment Gaps Are Normal

Let's start with the reality: employment gaps are incredibly common. A 2023 LinkedIn survey found that 62% of employees have taken a career break at some point. The pandemic alone created millions of involuntary gaps. Layoffs, caregiving, health issues, burnout, education, relocation -- the reasons are endless, and most of them are completely reasonable.

The stigma around resume gaps has been shrinking steadily. Hiring managers who've been through a few economic cycles understand that careers aren't always linear. That said, how you present a gap still matters. Not because the gap itself is a problem, but because how you handle it signals your self-awareness and professionalism.

Why Hiring Managers Ask About Gaps

When an interviewer asks about a gap, they're not trying to catch you in a lie. They're trying to answer three underlying questions:

1. Is there a red flag? (Were you fired for cause, or is there a pattern of instability?)
2. Are your skills current? (Has the gap affected your ability to do the job?)
3. Are you committed to returning? (Will you stay, or is this a temporary stop?)

Your job is to address these underlying concerns, not to justify every month you weren't employed. A brief, confident explanation followed by a pivot to your qualifications handles all three questions at once.

How to Present Gaps on Your Resume

There are several formatting strategies depending on the length and recency of your gap.

Use Years Instead of Months

If your gap is less than a year, switching from "June 2023 - January 2024" to "2023 - 2024" makes the gap less visually obvious. This isn't deception -- it's standard resume formatting that many professionals use regardless of gaps.

Month/year format (gap is obvious):
  Marketing Manager, Acme Corp       March 2020 - June 2022
  Marketing Coordinator, Beta Inc    Jan 2018 - August 2019
  [visible 7-month gap]

Year-only format (gap is less prominent):
  Marketing Manager, Acme Corp       2020 - 2022
  Marketing Coordinator, Beta Inc    2018 - 2019

This approach works best when the gap is relatively short (under a year) and not the most recent entry on your resume.

Include the Gap Directly

For longer gaps or recent ones, addressing them directly on your resume is often the stronger choice. You don't need to be elaborate -- a single line is enough:

• Career Break (2022 - 2023) -- Full-time caregiving for family member
• Professional Development (2023) -- Completed AWS Solutions Architect certification and Google Data Analytics certificate
• Sabbatical (2022 - 2023) -- Independent travel and language study (conversational Spanish)

Including the gap proactively shows confidence. You're not hiding anything, and you're giving the hiring manager enough context that they don't need to ask.

Use a Skills-Based (Functional) Format

If you have multiple gaps or a non-linear career path, a functional or combination resume format puts your skills and accomplishments front and center, with work history in a less prominent position.

That said, be aware that some recruiters are skeptical of purely functional resumes because they associate the format with candidates trying to hide something. A combination format -- skills section at the top, followed by a traditional reverse-chronological work history -- gives you the best of both approaches.

Framing Different Types of Gaps

Different gaps call for different framing. Here's how to handle the most common situations:

Layoff or Company Closure

This is the easiest gap to explain because it's clearly not your fault. Be straightforward:

"My entire department was eliminated when the company restructured after the acquisition. I used the transition period to earn my PMP certification and am now focused on finding a role where I can apply both my project management experience and this new credential."

Don't badmouth the former employer. Don't over-explain. State what happened, what you did with the time, and move forward.

Caregiving (Children, Elderly Parents, Family Illness)

Caregiving is one of the most common reasons for career breaks, and hiring managers understand it. You don't owe anyone a detailed medical history or personal story. A simple framing works:

"I took two years to serve as the primary caregiver for a family member. During that time, I stayed current with industry trends and completed several online courses in data analytics. I'm now ready to return to work full-time and bring that refreshed perspective to a new role."

Health Issues

You are under no obligation to disclose specific health conditions. Keep it brief and forward-looking:

"I took time off to address a health matter, which has been fully resolved. I'm excited to return to work and have been preparing by updating my certifications and reconnecting with my professional network."

Couldn't Find a Job

This one feels awkward, but it's more common than people admit -- especially during economic downturns. Frame it around what you did during the search:

"The market was challenging during that period, and I was selective about finding the right fit. While searching, I freelanced on three client projects and completed a UX design bootcamp, which expanded my skill set."

Voluntary Break (Travel, Personal Projects, Burnout Recovery)

Owning a deliberate break shows self-awareness. Many hiring managers actually respect the decision to step back intentionally rather than burning out at a job:

"After five years of intense startup work, I took a planned six-month break to recharge and travel. I came back with renewed energy and a clearer sense of what I want in my next role -- which is exactly why this position caught my attention."

What to Do During a Current Gap

If you're currently in a gap and actively job searching, the best thing you can do is create things to talk about:

You don't need to do all of these. Pick one or two that genuinely interest you and commit to them. The goal isn't to fabricate busyness -- it's to have honest, concrete answers when someone asks "What have you been up to?"

How to Talk About Gaps in Interviews

The interview conversation about a gap should follow a simple formula: acknowledge, explain briefly, pivot to value.

The Formula in Practice

Acknowledge: "You'll notice a gap on my resume between 2022 and 2023."

Explain briefly: "I took that time to care for a parent who was recovering from surgery."

Pivot to value: "During that period, I also completed two project management certifications. Combined with my five years of experience leading cross-functional teams, I'm confident I can hit the ground running in this role."

Total time: about 20 seconds. That's all it needs. The most common mistake is over-explaining -- treating the gap like a crime that requires a detailed defense. It's not. Brief, honest, forward-looking. Then move on to discussing what you can do for the company.

What Not to Say

• Don't lie about dates or invent positions (background checks catch this)
• Don't be defensive or apologetic ("I know it looks bad, but...")
• Don't overshare personal details (they don't need to know the diagnosis)
• Don't blame others excessively ("My terrible boss made it impossible to stay")

The Bigger Picture

The reality of modern careers is that they're rarely a smooth, unbroken line from entry-level to retirement. People get laid off, take breaks, change directions, deal with life events, and come back stronger. The candidates who handle gaps with confidence and honesty are the ones who get hired -- not because the gap doesn't matter, but because how you handle it tells the interviewer something important about your character.

An employment gap is a chapter in your career story, not the whole book. Don't let it define your narrative.

Sources

• LinkedIn: Career Breaks on Your Profile -- LinkedIn's research on career breaks, including survey data showing that 62% of employees have experienced a career break and the decreasing stigma among hiring managers
• Harvard Business Review: How to Explain a Gap in Your Resume -- Evidence-based strategies for framing employment gaps, with insights from recruiters on what explanations are most effective
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Worker Displacement Survey -- BLS data on layoffs, displacement, and the frequency of involuntary career interruptions across industries and economic cycles

When you're ready to get back out there, Superpower Resume helps you build a resume that puts your strongest qualifications front and center -- so the conversation is about what you can do, not about when you weren't working.