Extensive research into staff CVs has revealed that more than 25% are inaccurate, with many featuring untruths that would jeopardise job offers.

The study by First Advantage looked at CVs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and found inaccuracies in 26.8% of the documents.

Of these, it said, just over a third were significant enough to impact on employment decisions, with the most wrong entries occurring in education histories.

Almost a quarter of all employment history checks uncovered blips, as did 23.2% of all professional history checks, including details of qualifications, licenses and memberships.

The study covers CV trends between January 2011 and December 2014.

Background checks on temporary workers were more likely to uncover problems than permanent staff, with 36.2% turning up inaccuracies.

By sector, finance and banking had the lowest rate of “mistakes”, partly due to the sector's track record of rigorous investigations into new recruits.

Suzanne Mastrofski at First Advantage said: “More and more employers realise the value of screening when making ‘trust decisions’ and the potential risks of not screening.

“The relatively low discrepancy rate in banking and financial services provides a good example to other sectors where screening is less commonplace.

“It illustrates that the greater the use of screening, the less likely candidates are to attempt to conceal or misrepresent information when applying for a new job. This raises the quality of hire and thereby improves business effectiveness and, ultimately, profitability.”