About 43 percent of employers surveyed in the 2010 Orange County Resume Survey* said that candidates must submit a cover letter for each position, while almost 30 percent said cover letters are not important, and the employers don’t have time to read them anyway. Another 27.4 percent have no preference for whether candidates include a cover letter or not.
This 43 percent figure is lower than the 66 percent cited over the past several years as strongly preferring that job-seekers include cover letters with their resumes. The effect is the same, however; since job-seekers don’t usually know which employers want to see cover letters, it’s best to always include one.
Most employment ads and job postings don’t explicitly request that the job-seeker include a cover letter, but many employers expect them nonetheless.
*The 2010 Orange County Resume Survey by The Center for Career and Life Development, Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, CA, Eric Hilden, Career Placement Officer, was distributed by email to 2,000+ employer contacts in Orange County and shared online via social-networking sites including Linkedin.com and Twitter.
