HR Boss Warns Against Applicant Dishonesty Amidst Job Market Pressure

The latest data from the Office for National Statistics, reveals unemployment has climbed to a five-year high – a trend that may be pushing some jobseekers towards risky tactics in their search for work. Despite this, Cindy Gunn, People Director at leading UK recruitment and HR agency, Gi Group, is urging candidates to avoid lying on their CVs and is calling on employers to undertake a rigorous vetting process.

With unemployment currently sitting at 5.2%, many candidates may feel tempted to fabricate experience on their CVs in order to stand out amongst other jobseekers. According to a survey by fraud prevention service, Cifas, one in five candidates admitted to lying on their CV in order to land a job role. On top of this, research by Standout CV revealed that 18.5 per cent of people who lied about employee references admitted to using fake reference services, sometimes involving paid actors pretending to be employers.

With these risks, accurately vetting potential employees has become paramount to employers’ ability to choose the right candidates, yet the increasingly deep candidate pool means employers have to spend more time combing through each candidate to validate them.

Cindy Gunn, Group Head of People at Gi Group

In an ever-squeezed job market, Cindy has warned against excessive embellishment and even outright dishonesty on CVs. She said: “Given the highly competitive employment landscape, it’s understandable that some candidates may feel under pressure, or even a sense of desperation, to exaggerate, or even falsify, their experience or references in order to appear as a better choice for employers. But everyone needs to be aware that lying on your CV can amount to gross misconduct, potentially leading to dismissal, legal consequences and even being blacklisted by recruiters.

“However, given that it is happening the onus then falls on the employer, and perhaps even recruiters who are working with candidates, to properly vet potential employees. This can be a very time-consuming process, but it will be to an employer’s detriment if they don’t properly vet a candidate and then discover later down the line that experience was fabricated to an extent which means the candidate isn’t qualified for the role.”

Gi Group’s latest data reveals that one of the most in demand sectors by candidates is engineering, with an 157% increase in applications. The 13,729 new applications in 2025 however were to fill just 1,637 roles, showing a staggering competition for jobs – with over eight applications per vacancy. That is without considering the candidates and applicants already working with Gi Group in the business’s existing talent pool.

The data from the company shows that competition is huge across different industries and employers may need to undertake longer vetting processes to ensure that people are not using illicit methods to stand out.

“As a recruiter or employer, having a bad experience with candidates who told mistruths throughout the application and interview process can leave you feeling hesitant when inevitably you have to start the hiring cycle again. We’re all human and can be deceived. Given that, however, it’s vital that when you go back into the candidate pool you take those lessons on board and map out a robust vetting process with consistent criteria that complies with GDPR laws,” Cindy added.

Given the digital literacy of many candidates, social media checks can be difficult to verify entirely. Research undertaken by British Standards Institution in 2025 found that 40% of 16-21-year-olds have a burner, or “decoy” social media account – while over a quarter said they’ve pretended to be an entirely different person. The difficulty of verifying online presences means employers must tread very carefully when undertaking any such vetting.

Cindy said: “Undertaking transparent social media screening to see if their employment experience on their CV adds up with, say, their LinkedIn profile, is perfectly reasonable, you may also want to inform candidates that references will be taken, and document every outcome.

Despite the huge number of applications per role, Cindy urges employers to avoid taking shortcuts when recruiting: “When application volumes increase, focus on strengthening your vetting process rather than finding shortcuts. Make sure key references and qualifications are verified before someone starts work and consider using trusted agencies or screening services if your team is overwhelmed. The cost of a hiring mistake is much greater than delaying the process to ensure it’s done correctly.

“It’s a responsibility you take on as an employer and the potential legal and reputational consequences of getting it wrong can be detrimental.”