Career Gaps Are Now the Norm, Not the Exception
Research based on an analysis of nearly 19 million UK CVs found that in 2025, just 51% of job seekers had no employment gap at all, down from 61% in 2020. In other words, roughly half of all candidates in the UK now have a break in their work history. Long gaps have risen sharply too: 24% of UK job seekers had a gap of 12 months or more in 2025, up from 18% in 2020 — a 33% rise in five years.
This matters because it changes how recruiters read gaps. When nearly half of all CVs show a break, a gap no longer signals that something went wrong. It signals that you're a normal person who has lived a normal life; which increasingly includes redundancy, caring responsibilities, health issues, career reassessment, or simply the reality of a volatile job market.
Attitudes among hiring managers are shifting accordingly: 79% of hiring managers say they are open to hiring candidates with career gaps. The stigma hasn't disappeared entirely, but it has softened considerably, and for gaps that occurred post-2020, most recruiters understand the context without being told.
What Recruiters Are Actually Worried About
The concern isn't the gap itself. It's the uncertainty around it.
If your CV has a year-long unaddressed break, a recruiter has to fill in the blank themselves. That blank might be filled with perfectly reasonable assumptions. Or it might not. The recruiter doesn't know. And when they have 249 other CVs to review, uncertainty is grounds enough to move on.
The fix is simple: address it briefly and proactively, before they have to ask.
How to Handle a Gap on Your CV
Short gaps (under three months) rarely need explanation. Most recruiters won't flag them and they don't require specific commentary on your CV.
Medium gaps (three to twelve months) benefit from a single line in your CV's work history or personal statement, framing what you were doing during that time. Redundancy, caring responsibilities, health recovery, travel, or deliberate upskilling are all legitimate and accepted reasons, and saying so briefly removes the uncertainty.
Longer gaps (twelve months or more) should be addressed clearly but concisely. The key is framing. There's a significant difference between a gap that reads as passive ("unemployed") and one that reads as active, even if the circumstances weren't entirely in your control:
- "Career break: redundancy following company restructure. During this period, completed [relevant course or certification] and [specific activity]."
- "Career break: primary carer for a family member. Returned to professional development through [specific course]."
Neither of these requires explanation or apology. They state a fact and demonstrate that you weren't standing still.
What You Did During the Gap Matters More Than the Gap Itself
Recruiters increasingly look past the gap itself and focus on what happened during it. Even modest activity makes a difference; an online course, freelance work, volunteering, or simply demonstrating that you stayed connected to your industry. It doesn't need to be impressive. It needs to show that you remained engaged and purposeful.
If your gap is recent and you haven't done anything structured during it, there's still time to change that before your next application. An online certification from a recognised provider takes weeks, not months, and gives you something concrete to reference.
What Not to Do
Don't stretch employment dates to cover a gap. Background checks are routine and discrepancies are caught. The conversation that follows is far worse than the gap would have been.
Don't be defensive or over-explain. A short, factual account of your gap is far stronger than a lengthy justification. If you feel compelled to apologise for it, that feeling will come through in your writing.
Don't leave the gap blank and hope a recruiter doesn't notice. They will. And filling in their own assumptions is never better than a brief, honest explanation from you.
The Bottom Line
Career gaps are common, increasingly understood, and entirely survivable in a job search — provided you address them on your own terms. The candidates who struggle aren't those who have gaps; they're those who let recruiters fill in the story for them.
Own it briefly, frame it confidently, and move on. Your experience before and after the gap is what you're selling.
Karro analyses your full CV and flags how your career timeline reads to a recruiter — including how gaps are presented and whether your framing is working in your favour. Free to try.