Background Check Statistics

According to the AmericanDataBank.com, up to 30 percent of all applications contain false information and another 40 percent of resumes have facts that are misrepresented. On top of this, 30 percent of all business failures are caused by employee theft, the website found. Because of this, employers are conducting more background checks before deciding to hire new workers than ever before. Liz Pulliam Weston of MSN Money found that 9 out of 10 large employers are now investigating applicants.

The results of these checks often differ from industry to industry. AmericanDataBank.com found that the food service sector has the highest occurrence of applicants with criminal records, with 8 percent of background checks in this industry having negative marks in this regard. The second highest was retail, where 7 percent of applicants were found to have a criminal record. Only 4 percent of those in the business services sector had this sort of history, which was the lowest out of the industries investigated.

The highest percent of inaccurate resumes were found in the transportation industry, where 89 percent of the background checks on applicants showed that they had misrepresented themselves. Food service came in second with 54 percent of workers making this mistake. The manufacturing sector had the lowest amount of job seekers lying while trying to get hired. Only 42 percent of candidates in this area of employment tried to get a job by making themselves look better than they actually are on paper.

Many employers are now looking into applicants’ credit histories in order to help them make hiring decisions. AmericanDataBank.com found that the food services industry, once again, had the highest occurrence of applicants with negative credit reports. Over half (51 percent) of workers in this sector had a past that involved some sort of financial issue. Business services had the lowest, with only 33 percent having a past in this regard.

Statistics like these illustrate how important it is that employers conduct pre-employment background checks, especially in industries that have a higher ratio of employees that misrepresent them on resumes.