How important is the cover letter when applying for a job?

Cover letter is a first impression to let employer know about candidate personality, knowledge, experience and abilities.  

A cover letter is a quick synopsis of your eligibility, experience and interests that make you most suitable for the job you are applying for. Therefore, when an applicant provide a cover letter it becomes a significant consideration for selecting a candidate for the post. So, I believe that it's really important apart from CV.

The cover letter allows you to target the job and the employer in a very specific way, leaving the resume to market your skills, qualities and experience as a part of the bigger picture. Your resume then needs less tweaking with each application because the letter, which must be different each time, does that for you.

Its important to give a over look to the hiring team about you and you CV.

100% important for any one , this is the best method

this is like mirror of future

Agree with experts answers ..............

The letter of introduction to the job is important in that it shows the strengths of you, where through the speech you can write about your abilities and your capabilities and features and tell the employer these experiences and capabilities in a summary process facilitates selection