Twenty statistics to show you why cover letters are important for your job search

Our resume writers always talk about the importance of attaching a strong cover letter to your job application. Did you know that a majority of employers prefer to receive a cover letter from job applicants? In fact, some employers even reject applications that do not carry a cover letter.

This is why you must always attach a cover letter to your job application, even when the employer has not required you to write one in the job posting. Imagine being the only job applicant who submitted a cover letter for a particular job opening. You will stand out almost instantaneously.

Many hiring managers believe that a cover letter allows them to have a glimpse into the personality of the job applicant. While the resume of a job seeker is almost always very technical, a cover letter carries a personal touch. Your cover letter can set the employer’s mood before they even get to the resume.

49% of hiring managers admit that a strong cover letter has convinced them to interview a candidate who has submitted a relatively weak resume. On the other hand, 18% of hiring managers say that they have rejected job applicants just because they submitted a weak cover letter.

Here are twenty cover letter statistics that you must know about:

• 25% of employers believe that a cover letter is very important for a job application.
• Most hiring managers who read cover letters, 48%, take 30 seconds to two minutes for each cover letter.
• 60% of companies demand cover letters from job applicants.
• Only 6% of hiring managers think that a cover letter is unnecessary for a job application.
• Out of hiring managers, 83% frequently or always read cover letters.
• 83% of hiring managers take the cover letter into consideration for their hiring decisions.
• 16% of hiring managers believe that reading the cover letter is necessary to be thorough.
• 59% of hiring managers think that the cover letter provides insight into the applicant’s personality and attitudes.
• Medium and large companies with over 100 employees are twice as likely than small businesses to think that cover letters are important.
• Only 15% of small businesses consider cover letters to be important when making hiring decisions.
• 36% of hiring managers devote less than 30 seconds to a single cover letter.
• When it comes to large tech corporations with over 5000 employees, 48% require cover letters.
• A majority of tech startups (65%) require a cover letter from job applicants.
• A total of 87% of hiring managers read cover letters from job applicants.
• 22% of hiring managers admit that they just read cover letters out of habit.
• Even employers who don’t require cover letters from job applicants read them. 73% of these employers read the cover letters they receive.
• Only 4% of hiring managers never or infrequently read cover letters.
• When it comes to hiring, 45% of hiring managers read the cover letter before they even look at the resume of a job applicant.
• 15% of hiring managers take more than 2 minutes to go through a cover letter of an applicant.
• If a job posting requires job seekers to submit a cover letter, 72% of hiring managers read them.