My Yahoo!Finance column that appears July 29 examines ways to plug a gap in a resume. In June 2010, nearly 7 million Americans were out of work for more than six months, a five-fold increase since 2007. The story looks at various strategies to explain a gap in employment. But job seekers can also structure their resumes to divert attention away from a gap.

Start with a profile of three or four lines that describes who you are and puts the rest of the page in context, advises Patrick Knisley, who teaches business writing, including resume and cover letter skills, at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York.

“If the first thing I see is your most recent job ended two years ago, I’m going to focus on that; but if I read something about your hard and soft skills, the gap is not so jarring,” Knisley says.

Knisley says a profile might read: “Interior design graduate with three years experience at architectural firm; skilled at Autocad, sketching and three-dimensional digital models; strategic thinker, problem solver, good communication skills.”

Some workers disguise a gap by crafting a resume that’s thematic rather than a chronological, but Knisley doesn’t recommend it. “Hiring managers know why it’s been written that way,” he says. “Do a chronological resume and put the dates to the right — and not in bold.” More experienced workers can cover a smaller gap by listing only the years of employment, rather than months and years, he adds.

In addition, workers can count a severance period as part of their workplace tenure, says Paul Bernard, president of Paul Bernard & Associates, an executive coaching firm in New York. “If you were let go on July 1 and have six months of severance, you can tell employers, ‘I’m still working now, but I know my job is going to be disappearing in six months, so I am actively looking.’ If you are still collecting a paycheck, you’re still employed.”

Have you found a creative way to fill a gap? Comment here or email me at laura at laura rowley dot com. 

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