Job cuts fuelled by recession led to sharp rise in resume frauds all in the country over the last year, with North India reporting maximum such frauds. The region accounted for 47 per cent of the total resume discrepancies, followed by the western states at 32 per cent discrepancies.

South and East India together accounted for the lowest percentage of frauds – reflecting a better job scenario in these regions during the global financial meltdown that led to the loss of five lakh jobs in the country between October and December last.

Analysis of the job and resume trends during economic crisis by AuthBridge Research Services, a background screening and risk management consulting firm, shows maximum resume embellishments happened during March, which saw 16 per cent of job frauds. March was also the worst month on the economic front.

The report titled ‘Background screening trends: A recession time study’, which evaluates the upward trend in resume embellishments as an aftermath of recession, further reveals how discrepancies related to previous employment were the most – 74 per cent of the total. Of these, 59 per cent candidates lied about their tenure, designation or cost to company. Fake and forged documents formed 69 per cent of the total education-related discrepancies during the meltdown. Maximum resume-related discrepancies were reported from the following three sectors — ITeS (IT enabled services), IT and BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance sector).

Commenting on the report, Ajay Trehan, CEO of AuthBridge, said: “Job cuts, lay-offs and salary cuts have been the key factors during recession instigating candidates to lie in resumes so as to bag the available job at any cost.” He added that the upward trend in resume frauds showed that employers needed to scrutinise candidate’s profile even more carefully and watch out for fraudulent credentials, such as inflated or fictional employment history or educational degrees so as to secure them from the hazardous repercussions of unsafe hiring.

The report aims to provide deeper understanding of the growing hiring risks in the country, and is a result of primary and secondary data research evaluating sample size of 10,000 cases per month.

Source:The Tribune