How to Use Numbers in a Resume

Updated March 10, 2023

Using numbers in your resume can make it stand out to a hiring manager by showing you have verifiable accomplishments. Quantifying your abilities through numbers in your resume shows a future employer you can add value to their goals if they hire you. In this article, we'll look at why including numbers in your resume is a good idea, tips for adding numbers, and what numbers you should put in your resume.

Should you include numbers in your resume?

Putting numbers on a resume can show a hiring manager distinct accomplishments and contributions in your work history that apply to the position you're applying for. The goal of using numbers is to prove how valuable you are and the impact you can make.

Numbers are especially useful for roles in finance, sales, executive leadership and accounting because these positions typically involve managing money, hitting quotas and making quantifiable impacts on their organization. For other roles, you can use numbers to show the time spent on completing a project, or to illustrate the size of a team you led.

Tips for including numbers in your resume

To use numbers in a resume, determine how you most affected the company during your time with them and how your impact is quantifiable in exact numbers, ranges or percentages. You can put these numbers where most applicable for your resume, but four major sections to put them in are:

Your summary: A resume summary is a brief description at the top of your resume that highlights your experience and skills.
Your work experience: The work experience section shows employers your qualifications and skills.
Your accomplishments: Your list of accomplishments showcases your professional and personal achievements.
Your career highlights: A career highlights section briefly describes many accomplishments throughout your long career in different jobs.

Here are some tips on how to include numbers in your resume:

Include numbers as a bulleted list of items of your job descriptions.
Use a range or estimate if exact numbers aren't available.
Use specific numbers for dollar amounts and lengths of time.
Use percentages to show average increases and growth.
Use numerals to streamline phrasing and help the number stand out.
Use numbers wherever you can quantify something.

What numbers should be in a resume?

Here are 15 numbers to include in your resume:

New clients acquired

Client or customer acquisition is the gaining of new clients or customers for a business. The goal of customer acquisition is to create a sustainable strategy that grows according to changes and attracts potential new customers. Customer acquisition can also help a business increase profits, reinvest in growth, and show evidence of growth to investors and outside parties.

For example, you can show many clients you added. You could also include or estimate how much money came from those new clients.

Example: Added 100 new clients from 2017-19 for recurring revenue increase of $3.6 million.

Increase in revenue

Revenue is the total earnings a business generates through operations such as the sale of products or services, rent on property or interest on borrowings. Revenue is the amount earned from clients and customers before subtracting expenses. You can show if and how you affected any revenue increases for your previous employer.

Example: Bolstered sales by $1.5 million during the second quarter of 2018 by adding 100 new clients.

Client retention

Client or customer retention is how a company ensures that once a customer has tried a product, they will continue to purchase from the business. Any type of engagement or outreach toward previous buyers can contribute to client retention. Customer Retention Rate is the percentage of customers you keep over a certain period. By highlighting customer retention rate, you can show a recruiter you could keep customers continuing to buy from your company.

Example: Maintained Customer Retention Rate between 88% and 96% over a three-year period.

Website traffic

Website management positions involve monitoring and increasing the number of visitors to a company's website and increasing the time a user spends on the site. Use numbers to show increased visitor traffic to your previous employer's website during your time there, and any methods used to do so.

Example: Boosted overall visitor traffic by 25% by doubling the number of articles published daily.

User engagement

User engagement refers to interactions between visitors and content on a website or social media channel. Social media or website management positions include improving user engagement across a company's social media channels. Numbers or percentages can show an increase in user engagement, and you can add an explanation of methods to show the value of the increase.

Example: Increased monthly user engagement by 30% through a prize give-away campaign.

Subscriptions

Companies use subscriptions for products, services and content, and companies expect this revenue to continue predictably. Use numbers to show your impact on subscriptions sold or renewed.

Example: Signed up at least 40 new subscribers in each quarter of 2020.

Donations

Charitable or nonprofit organizations operate either by using donations to provide a service or collecting donations to help others. These organizations may have a dedicated person who works with and solicits new donors. Use numbers to show the number of added donors and how much money in total you solicited from new and existing donors.

Example: Added 12 new donors in the first half of 2017 for $6.2 million in additional revenue.

Student test scores

Students' scores on standardized achievement tests are measurements of a school's ability to educate. These test scores illustrate students' knowledge according to grade level and can show successful teaching methods in primary grades through high school. Teachers can use these numbers on their resumes to highlight improvements in their students' grades.

Example: Implemented tutoring program to help improve students' SAT scores by an average of 100 points.

Response times

Many professionals, such as emergency responders and in customer service, use response time to measure effectiveness and efficiency. Customer service positions often require quick response times to customer inquiries via phone, email, or web chat features. Use numbers on your resume to show your average response time or to highlight improvements in response times.

Example: Maintained an average customer response time of 2 minutes.

Budget management

A budget is a spending plan based on income or revenue, and it estimates the amount of money available for spending based on how much money will come in. Executives and other leadership positions often involve being capable of managing a budget to identify savings and track expenses.

Example: Reduced budgetary spending per department by 40% over a two-year period.

Number of referrals

A referral is when a client recommends your product or service to a prospective customer. This serves as a cost-effective way to grow client connections and bring in more work because there isn't typically money involved. Referral numbers on a resume can show how you helped grow a customer base as a sales representative or similar sales role.

Example: Gained 10 new clients through referrals during the first quarter of 2018.

Awards won

An award recognizes the achievement of an individual for performing a specific task or service. Awards can be internal and specific to a company, or they can honor work done in a particular industry and measured against peers at similar companies. Sales representatives could strive to earn a top seller award per quarter at their company, or maybe as a customer service associate, you earned employee of the month.

Example: Three-time Writer of the Year Award winner.

Staff size

Staff size refers to the number of people a leader managed or supported. The size of the company or department may determine the size of the staff. Include staff size numbers on your resume to show a prospective employer you can manage or support a group of people successfully.

Example: Managed an advertising department of 12 and five outside contractors.

Staff retention

Staff or employee retention refers to an organization's ability to keep quality employees. The expectation is that the higher the retention number, the better the company is at keeping its employees. Department managers are often responsible for staff retention, and this number can show how effective your strategies are to improving or maintaining staff retention.

Example: Held staff retention steady at 95%.

Audit findings

Auditing refers to examining and verifying an organization's accounts. This often means financial accounts and auditors can be from either within a company or from outside the company. Auditors begin their work after an accountant has completed their financial reporting.

Example: Saved the company $2 million from discrepancies found in the annual financial report.