Recession pressure leading to lying CVs
13 Aug 09
Pressure to find a job in the recession is leading almost a fifth of young people to lie on application forms, according to a survey by Powerchex, which carries out pre-employment screening and checks references
The largest increase in untruthful applicants was in the under‐21 year old age range. They lied on their CVs and applications nearly 30 per cent more often than they did last year.
Having been the most truthful age‐group last year, under‐21 year olds are now among the least. The survey shows that 18 per cent of under‐21 year olds will lie or hide information on their applications.
Alexandra Kelly, managing director of Powerchex, said: “This is the second year in a row that there has been an increase in the number of candidates lying to recruiters. The pressure of the recession on job markets seems to have led more applicants to believe that they should lie or make embellished claims to get jobs.
“It’s unfortunate to see that more young people are reacting to the pressure in this way. Their socio‐economic group has been one of the hardest hit."