How to Explain Being Laid Off On Your Resume

An uncomfortable wave of layoffs has affected companies across a variety of industries in recent months. Even traditionally layoff-resistant companies like Netflix have made cuts to their headcount, as well as tech titans like Amazon, DoorDash, and Meta.

If you're one of the unfortunate few who have lost their job, or are still searching for something since being furloughed or let go during the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping your resume up to date is essential — you never know when a new job opportunity might pop up! However, if you’ve recently been laid off, figuring out how to identify this in your resume can be challenging.

If you’re worried about listing a job you’ve been laid off from in your resume, here are some best practices to quickly address the situation without impacting your chances of landing a new job.

Addressing a layoff is never fun, but it’s a relatively common experience. In 2018, 21.9 million people were laid off due to the pandemic, and millions more have been laid off since. There’s no reason to feel embarrassed about addressing a layoff — it happens to thousands of people across the country each year.

The good news is, you might not need to mention that you were laid off at all. If you have over a year's worth of time logged with that company, you are in no way expected to provide a reason why you left. You should, however, resist the temptation to keep the position listed as "to present." Choosing not to disclose your termination is up to you. And while it isn't dishonest in nature to withhold that information, saying you still work there absolutely is, and might come to light during your subsequent interviews.

Reasons why you might disclose you were laid off include:

• You were affected by a well-known layoff like the ones listed above and you've applied for a position at a competitor within the same industry.
• Your hiring manager shares the same industry and is well-connected.
• You have worked at your previous company for under a year, and want to be upfront about the reason for leaving, since it will almost assuredly come up.
• You want to be transparent and feel like honesty is the best policy.

It’s also important to know that while you may think the HR manager or interviewer will be hung up on that detail, they may not even bring it up. While you should discuss your layoff if prompted, you’re not obligated to mention it if it does not come up during an interview.

If your last job was the one to lay you off, and you haven’t found new employment yet, you might be worried about explaining these circumstances during your current job search. Don't be. First off, each industry has its own expectations, and might not need you to present your jobs linearly.

Before updating your resume, it’s important to understand what you should include and what to leave out when noting a layoff. If you’re applying for a more creative, talent-driven, or project-based position — such as a designer, copywriter, or videographer — you won’t have to worry as much about listing a layoff. Instead, you’ll link your resume to online portfolios and craft it to highlight relevant projects or published work. You can also list companies you’ve worked for at the bottom of your resume, but listing dates and reasons for leaving aren’t usually required.

No matter what the position, what you will need to demonstrate is your work experience. This section will play a large role in determining if you’re the right candidate for the position. This might feel overwhelming if you’re trying to decide how to list a job you’ve been laid off from. Here are a few tips for addressing a recent layoff on your resume.

When writing a resume or cover letter of any kind, the onus is on you to highlight your achievements with concrete figures. The difference between being laid off vs. fired is the intent: generally, you get fired if a company feels you've been conducting unsatisfactory work, while a layoff has nothing to do with your work performance and everything to do with budget cuts at the highest level. You'll go into greater detail about what caused your layoff in the interview; for now, you should focus on how you made an impact in your previous position.

To do this successfully, cut the fluff, and show how you improved metrics and moved the needle in your role using easy-to-follow facts and figures. Where was your value add felt the most? Reducing costs, generating leads, raising click-through rates? Find it and hammer it home. You shouldn't have to quell any fears that you're a liability, since your work performance had nothing to do with your termination. But it never hurts to showcase your conscientiousness and professionalism either way.

The worst thing you can do in your resume is to lie or mislead the interviewer. Your potential employers may call your references and previous jobs to confirm you worked there. Lying about how long you worked for a company or where you worked can easily be discovered, disqualifying you from the job.

This also includes overstating your role in a particular job or embellishing the number of employees you managed. Lies like this can make it harder to find a new job.

While you don’t want to fabricate untrue information on your resume, it doesn’t mean you need to list everything on one piece of paper either. For instance, you do not need to list why you left every particular job, including jobs you were laid off from. Your resume is more about capturing your relevant work history and experience. There will be time to explain any gaps or discuss reasons for leaving particular companies during the interview process.

Lastly, you don’t have to list every job you ever worked for. Side hustles that aren’t relevant can be left off, and your first job as a cashier at Burger King doesn’t have to make the cut when editing your experience section. If you have worked across various jobs or industries, try and select relevant positions for the job you're applying.

When listing their previous positions on a resume, many people use the month and date to show when they started and when they left a particular job. While this format is acceptable, it’s become more common to note only your years working for a company, rather than the granular details of months and years.

For instance, let’s assume you were hired by a company in 2019 and laid off in 2022. Later in 2022, you started a new job at another company. Instead of listing the month and year that you left the first company, you can instead list “2019–2022.”

This style is especially useful for people with over 10 years of experience at different companies, who don't want to clutter their resumes with unnecessary details.

If you want to explain why you’re not currently working, keep it simple. On your resume, you can note in parentheses if your layoff was companywide by stating “mass corporate layoff.”

Likewise, if you were laid off due to COVID-19 impacting your company, you can state, “COVID-19-related layoff.” Don’t go into more detail — the time to do so will be face-to-face.

While you have more space to explain a potential layoff on your cover letter, you don’t have to address the issue there.

Cover letters should showcase your accomplishments and explain why you’re the perfect fit for a particular position. Discussing a layoff can feel out of place and prevent you from writing more about your relevant experience or the reasons why Company Y should hire you.

If you do decide to discuss your layoff in a cover letter, keep it brief. A short, terse explanation such as “my department was cut from the company” or “25% of my department was laid off” will more than suffice. If only your position was eliminated, you could note that by saying, “budgetary cuts led to my position being eliminated.”

Don’t dwell on the topic. Move on, and discuss how you helped grow your department or generated more revenue for that company instead.

If you were laid off and brushed up on new skills or volunteered in your free time, be sure to mention that on your resume and cover letter.

Since volunteer information will be listed on your resume, you can be more creative on your cover letter, writing “My layoff from Company X afforded me time to give back to my community by volunteering at …” or “My layoff from Company Y allowed me to go back to school and gain my certificate/degree in X subject.”

You can spin a negative experience into a positive one by showing that you were focused on developing your skills or doing volunteer work while unemployed.

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