The number of people lying on CVs has increased by 30% since last year and the number of people lying increased in every job sector surveyed except stockbrokers.
The survey was conducted by the Shell Technology and Enterprise Programme for employee screening firm Powerchex.
Job applicants most commonly lie about the dates on which they held certain jobs. The next two most popular lies are related to qualifications and directorships held.
The survey found that while these three categories of lie increased in their frequency, all the other kinds of lie told – about bankruptcy, job titles, salaries, reasons for leaving past jobs and criminal records – decreased in popularity.
The survey discovered that the university which graduates attended had a major effect on their likelihood to lie in CVs. It found that those who went to the top-ranked universities were least likely to lie.
It discovered that 43% of those who attended universities ranked outside the top 100 in the UK had a major lie in their job application, whereas just 14% of those from the top 20 universities had applications with a lie in them.
“What this survey says is that graduates from lesser-known universities may feel they need to alter their background to compete”, says Powerchex managing director Alexandra Kelly. “There appears to be a trend that the lower ranked the university, the higher the likelihood of discrepancies on a CV,” she added.
The survey also found that arts and humanities graduates were more likely to lie to get financial services jobs than maths and finance graduates.
Ben Doherty, an employment specialist at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, said that dishonesty on CVs can have ramifications even years after the offending document is written.
"There have been cases where people have been dismissed, even from extremely senior jobs, for lying on CVs years earlier," he said. "An employer can reasonably argue that it affects the trust and confidence between employer and employee. If they have lied about their CV, what else have the lied about?"
Doherty also stressed, though, that a CV is just one of the many ways in which employers can now find out about employees.
"The CV is really just a foot in the door now," he said. "Employers will then see what someone is like at interview and then they can even do further checking on things like MySpace or Facebook."
