Competitive labour market makes jobseekers more likely to lie about their skills and qualifications

According to a report from talent assessment company SHL Group, 23% of job applicants said the tough economic climate - plus the belief other applicants would lie as well - led them to exaggerate in order to stand a chance of being recruited.

While 54% claimed they would never lie, a third said they would be persuaded for a good salary or a dream job.

Men are more likely to lie in job interviews - 26% compared with 22% of women - and staff aged 18-24 are more likely to stretch the truth - 37% compared with 26% of 35-44 year-olds.

James Bywater, head psychologist at SHL Group, said: "Given the current job market, the results of our survey are really not that startling and, if anything, recruiters can expect to see more of this attitude to CVs and interviews as redundancy programmes contribute to a larger talent pool."

And Steve Huxham, chairman of the Recruitment Society, added: "I would agree the majority of jobseekers are honest but, given the current climate where candidates are up against tough competition for a job, they are bound to be tempted to elaborate their skills, qualifications or education to stand out from the rest.
 
"Now is definitely not the time to cut back on robust recruitment processes. More than ever recruiters should be undertaking the necessary checks and references but also looking out for hard-to-identify lies such as ‘experience by proxy' where a candidate will claim full credit for a project when in fact they were on the sidelines and do not have the knowledge or skills to repeat that work.  This can only really be spotted by sticking to a thorough assessment process."