Should You Put Your Address on a Resume?

The short answer for most jobs

Career-advice and resume-builder guidance converges hard on one point: skip the full street address, keep city and state (or city, state and "Remote"/"Open to relocate"). Monster's own current resume header guide says a full street address is unnecessary for most roles and can raise privacy concerns on its own; its separate US resume format guide repeats the same city-and-state recommendation. Huntr, Teal and CareerFlow all land on the identical default: name, phone, email, LinkedIn and city/state is a complete, modern header -- a full mailing address earns its place only when a specific posting or situation calls for it (below).

The complication most guides skip

The push toward dropping a full address isn't just a style preference. Monster's own piece on safeguarding resume contact information reports that candidates it surveyed widely feared identity theft from a resume address circulating online -- and, in the same piece, that most of the employers and recruiters it asked said they'd actually set a resume aside if it had no location information on it at all. That's a real, easy-to-miss, two-sided pressure: drop the street number and apartment unit, but keep a city and state -- a resume that looks unlocatable can read as suspicious rather than privacy-conscious.

Federal resumes: even the agencies disagree

This is the one place "always include it" and "never include it" advice both fail, because the US government doesn't have one address rule for itself. The National Archives' own 2025 Federal Resume Guide lists exactly four personal-information items: full name, city and state, email address and phone number -- no street address, no ZIP code. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing's own resume-format page, by contrast, asks applicants for a "mailing address (with ZIP Code)" alongside day and evening phone numbers. Two federal agencies, describing their own hiring process, give two different answers on the exact same field.

The practical move if you're applying through USAJOBS: follow the specific vacancy announcement's own instructions, not a general "federal resumes need X" rule repeated across resume-advice sites -- several widely-shared claims about a fixed federal address or page-count requirement don't trace to a single current, agency-wide policy either.

The privacy angle isn't hypothetical

A home address sitting on a resume that circulates across job boards, recruiter inboxes and the open web is a real, named identity-theft vector, not an abstract worry. St. Cloud State University's career center warns that fraudulent postings specifically try to collect data like home addresses alongside Social Security and bank information. Loyola University New Orleans' Career Development Center goes further, advising applicants to limit how much contact information they put on a resume at all -- including swapping an unusually specific job title for a more generic one -- whenever a posting feels off. Neither source argues against including a city and state; both argue against handing over more than a resume actually needs.

What to put instead, and the real exceptions

Default header: name, a professional email, phone number, LinkedIn URL (only if it's current), and city, state. If you're relocating, name the target city with a short "Relocating to [city]" note rather than your current address. If you're applying remotely, "Remote" can stand in for a location entirely.

Include a full street address only when something specific asks for it: a vacancy announcement that explicitly requests one (check the posting, not a general rule), a background-check or security-clearance process that will need it anyway, or a strictly local, on-site-only role where showing you're already in the area is doing real work for your application -- not as a default habit.

Build it in YourCVMaker

Every YourCVMaker template's header field accepts a plain city/state line as easily as a full address, so switching between the two for different applications -- a remote role versus a vacancy announcement that specifically asks for a mailing address -- is a one-field edit, not a rebuild. Should you put a photo on your resume? covers the other personal-information-on-a-resume question with the same honest, it-depends answer. Start building for free and fill in only what the specific application actually needs.

Frequently asked questions

Should I list my full street address or just city and state?

City and state, for almost every private-sector application in 2026 -- that's the converged recommendation across Monster, Huntr, Teal and CareerFlow's own guidance. A full street address is the exception, not the default.

Do federal resumes require a full mailing address?

Not uniformly. The National Archives' own current Federal Resume Guide asks only for city and state, while the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's own resume-format page asks for a full mailing address with ZIP code. Follow the specific USAJOBS vacancy announcement's own instructions rather than a general federal rule.

Is leaving off my address a red flag to employers?

Possibly, if you leave off location entirely. Monster's own survey work found employers and recruiters who said they'd set aside a resume with no location information at all -- so keep a city and state even when you drop the street address.

What should I put if I'm relocating or applying for a remote job?

Name your target city with a short "Relocating to [city]" note, or use "Remote" in place of a location for a fully remote application -- either beats listing an address that no longer matches where you're applying from.