We Analyzed 138,848 Resumes. Here Are the Words and Mistakes That Tank Your ATS Score.
We ran 138,848 real resumes through Resumly's ATS checker and aggregated the results. The takeaway: it's rarely fancy formatting that hurts you — it's vague filler words and a total absence of numbers.
Key findings
- 94.3% of resumes contain at least one overused buzzword — about 2.92 per resume.
- 30.6% of resumes have zero quantified achievements (no numbers, %, or $). Only ~26.2% of bullet points contain a number.
- Resumes with 3+ quantified bullets scored 6.9 points higher on average (71.8 vs 64.9/100).
- The words most associated with lower scores are vague self-descriptors — "motivated", "quick learner", "enthusiastic", "passionate" — not action verbs.
- Median ATS score is 69/100; 50.7% of resumes score below 70.
Methodology & data (read this)
- Sample: 138,848 resumes uploaded to Resumly's free ATS Resume Checker, each scored by a file-level analysis of the exported document. One score per check.
- What "score" means: a 0–100 ATS-readiness score from Resumly's checker (parsing, keywords, structure, content strength) — not a specific employer's ATS pass/fail.
- Buzzword association: for each overused term, we compare the average score of resumes that use it vs. those that don't. This is correlation, not causation — a word that appears with weaker resumes isn't necessarily what "causes" the lower score.
- Privacy: fully aggregate and anonymized. No names, contact details, employers, or resume text are included; any term/segment with fewer than 1,000 resumes is suppressed.
- Skew: Resumly's audience skews toward tech and early-career applicants, which is visible in the "missing skills" list.
The words that quietly lower your score
Average ATS-score difference for resumes using each term vs. resumes that don't (138,848 resumes). Vague personality adjectives fare worst.
Read as: resumes using "motivated" scored 5.6 points lower on average than those that didn't. Association, not causation — these words tend to replace evidence, they don't directly trigger rejections.
…and the words that go with stronger resumes
Concrete, outcome-oriented verbs trend the other way — because they usually sit next to a result.
The real killer: no numbers
30.6% of the 138,848 resumes had not a single quantified bullet. On average, just 26.2% of bullet points contained a number, percentage, or dollar figure. Resumes with 3+ quantified bullets averaged 71.8/100 vs 64.9/100 for resumes with none — a 6.9-point gap, the single largest content effect in the dataset.
What a "normal" ATS score looks like
Distribution of ATS scores across 138,848 resumes. Median 69; most land between 66 and 74.
The skills people forget to list
Most common keywords the checker flagged as missing for the applicant's target role (tech-leaning sample).
Where resumes are weakest
Average sub-score by dimension. Content strength (impact & quantification) is consistently the lowest — the same story as the numbers gap above.
How to cite this study
Resumly (2026). The ATS Resume Study: An analysis of 138,848 resumes. Retrieved from https://www.resumly.ai/research/ats-resume-studyJournalists & researchers: you're welcome to cite these figures with a link to this page. For a custom data cut (e.g. by industry), email hello@resumly.ai.
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