Jobseekers 'could lie more in tough recruitment market'

It may be easier for job candidates to lie on their CVs in the current economic climate, it has been claimed.

Steve Huxham, chairman of the Recruitment Society, said it is more likely that CV fraud will increase in a tough job market.

He continued: "I hate to say it with something as serious as CVs, but there's almost an element of safety in numbers. There's that mentality that makes people think: 'Well, everyone's at it', and then that becomes more difficult for the client."

Mr Huxham went on to add that companies are increasingly being advised by lawyers to be careful what they write in references, meaning that candidates are more likely simply to receive an acknowledgement that they were at a firm for a specified period of time rather than anything more detailed.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics earlier this month indicated the employment rate for people of working age was 74.1 per cent for the three months to December 2008, down 0.3 from the previous quarter and 0.7 over the year.

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With more and more companies taking pre-employment referencing seriously Rob Scott, of sales recruitment agency Aaron Wallis, commented: "Many companies, including Aaron Wallis, now offer independent CV verification services to their employer clients. In this era of 'open information', it would be very foolish to lie on something so easy to verify such as tertiary education or job titles. Whilst the recruitment market may be tough for candidates I would thoroughly recommend 100 per cent honesty every time as job offers simply will be retracted if anomalies are found."

Independent CV Verification: http://www.aaronwallis.co.uk/independent_cv_verification.php

Filed: 24-02-2009