Resume Help
Should You Put Your Address on a Resume?
Reviewed by the Resume Wizard Editorial Team Updated September 2026
Quick answer
Put your city and state (or city and province) on your resume, never your street address. Recruiters filter and sort by location, so leaving it off costs you; the street address adds nothing and is a privacy risk on a document that gets forwarded widely. Relocating? Write the target city and a timeline instead.
The full street address on a resume is a leftover from the era when employers mailed you a letter. Nobody mails you anything now, and the document you're writing will be uploaded, forwarded, and stored in systems you'll never see. So the answer splits cleanly: keep the location, drop the address. "Columbus, OH" tells a screener what they need; "1427 Maple Street, Apt 4B" tells a stranger where you sleep.
That is not a privacy scare for its own sake. It is the same reasoning behind every other line in your header: include what a reviewer uses, cut what they don't.
What recruiters actually do with your location
Location is a filter before it is a fact. Recruiters searching a database of candidates sort by metro area; applicant tracking systems let hiring teams narrow to "within 25 miles"; a manager reading a stack of resumes for an on-site role wants to know if you can get to the building. A resume with no location at all gets sorted with the unknowns, which in practice means skipped when the stack is tall.
A street address adds nothing to that decision. Your city answers "can this person work here." The rest is detail the employer will collect properly, on a form, after they decide to talk to you.
The exact header line to use
One line under your name, alongside phone and email. Keep it to city and state, or city and province:
Jordan Lee
Columbus, OH · 614-555-0100 · jordan.lee@email.com · linkedin.com/in/jordanlee
Remote-first job seekers keep the same line; employers still want a time zone and a tax jurisdiction, and the city gives them both. For a hybrid or on-site role in a large metro, the city is enough; don't write the suburb unless it is closer to the office than the city name suggests.
Every resume example on this site uses this format, and the builder puts the location field in the header for you, so the only decision left is what to type in it.
Relocating: name the city you're moving to
If you're applying somewhere you don't live yet, the honest and effective move is to say so in the header, because a screener filtering by location will otherwise never see your resume:
Relocating to Denver, CO in January 2027 · 614-555-0100 · jordan.lee@email.com
The timeline matters more than the current city. "Open to relocation" on its own reads as "not yet decided" and gets filtered the same as a distant address. A dated move reads as a plan. If the move is already booked, write "Denver, CO (from January 2027)" and treat it as your location.
Frequently asked questions
Is it OK to leave the address off a resume entirely?
Leaving off the street address is expected. Leaving off the city is a mistake: many applicant tracking systems and most recruiters filter by location, and a resume with no location can be sorted as "unknown" and skipped. One line with city and state costs nothing and keeps you in the pool.
What if the application form asks for my full address?
Fill in the form; that data goes into the employer's system, not onto the document that gets forwarded to hiring managers. Your resume itself still shows only city and state. If a form makes the street address a required field, it is normal to provide it.
Should I include my address when applying to jobs in another country?
Show the city and country you live in, and state your work authorization or visa status in the same header line if it is relevant. Employers hiring across borders screen for both, and hiding either wastes a round of email.
Do I need a ZIP or postal code?
No. City and state give a screener everything they use. A postal code narrows you to a neighborhood, which helps nobody and reveals more than you need to.
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