More lying in jobs search (From Western Telegraph)

More lying in jobs search

9:26am Monday 5th October 2009 in Jobs

Pressure to find a job in the recession is leading almost a fifth of young people to lie on application forms, a survey has found.

Those under 21 are the most likely to be untruthful, with 18 per cent lying or hiding information, according to a survey of more than 4,700 applications made to financial firms in the past year. Last year, the age group was the most truthful.

The Powerchex poll found that people educated in state schools were 25 per cent more likely to lie on their CV than those who went to private school.

It also found that graduates from the top universities were also less likely to be untruthful – less than 10 per cent of candidates who graduated from Oxford or Cambridge were found to have a discrepancy on their CV.

This was compared with 25 per cent of graduates who attended universities outside the top 100 institutions.

The poll also found that women were more likely to lie on an application or CV than men.

Overall, 19 per cent of candidates lied on an application, up from 17 per cent in 2008.

Alexandra Kelly, managing director of Powerchex, said: “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."

The survey looked at 4,735 applications made to financial firms between June 2008 and May 2009.