Resume Statistics 2026: What Job Seekers Actually Put on Resumes

Key findings

According to SmoothApply's 2026 analysis of 224 real resumes built between March and June 2026:

• 95% of job seekers include a skills section, making it as universal as education (97%) and work experience (94%).
• 87% choose a single-column layout over a sidebar layout, the safer choice for ATS parsing.
• 81% of resume exports are PDF; 19% are DOCX, usually for employers that request editable files.
• Job seekers re-export 2.1 times on average, refining the resume between downloads rather than downloading once.
• "Improve my writing" is the #1 AI request (30% of all AI usage), ahead of grammar fixes (14%) and shortening text (10%).
• Only 8% include references on the resume itself; the old "references available upon request" convention is effectively dead.

Which sections do people actually use?

Share of resumes including each section (n = 224):

Takeaway: the core five (contact, education, skills, experience, summary) appear on nearly every resume. Everything else is situational; references have nearly disappeared.

Layout: single column wins

Export behavior

• PDF dominates: 81% of exports (629 of 777). DOCX accounts for 19% (148), typically when an employer or agency asks for an editable file.
• 2.1 exports per downloading user on average. People download, spot weaknesses, edit, and re-export. A resume is iterated, not finished.
• Job seekers tried templates 1,313 times across sessions before settling, roughly 6 template switches per saved resume.

How job seekers use AI on resumes

Share of all AI feature usage (378 requests):

Takeaway: job seekers do not want AI to write their resume from scratch. They want it to polish what they already wrote.