A recent study by EmployeeScreenIQ, a Cleveland-based background screening company, found that roughly 50% of the résumés that it looks at have some kind of inconsistency. The Society for Human Resource Management puts the number even higher. It says 70% of all job applications provide information that is not fully accurate.
And Orange Tree Employment Screening, a Minneapolis-based job screening company that verifies résumés for employers, didn’t find as many inaccuracies but it saw a disturbing trend: In 2007, it found that 33% of applicants had inconsistencies between what appeared on their résumé and what was verified in a background screening. That number increased to 35% in 2008 and 40% this year.
