Screening gets more secure

Security checks on the rise, while medical exams decline: StatsCan

The use of police background checks as a screening tool has more than doubled in the past 20 years, according to a Statistics Canada article.

The article, “Screening job applicants,” is based on data compiled as part of Statistics Canada’s 2001 Workplace and Employee Survey. It found that only five per cent of people hired before 1980 underwent a security check as part of the hiring process. This number grew to 12 per cent in 2000 and 2001.

“It’s easier to do a security check now than it was 20 years ago,” said Statistics Canada senior analyst Doreen Duchesne. “So I think there’s a lot more of them being done in certain occupations like teaching and any occupations involving the elderly or children or people at risk of abuse.”

The rise in security checks accompanied the growth in information technology jobs, which are more susceptible to security breaches, said Duchesne.

“Now you have people working in banking, computers and because they have access to confidential information and files involving finances, security checks are more important,” she said.

The industries most likely to perform security checks were communications and other utilities at 30 per cent of new hires in 2000 and 2001, education and health at 24 per cent and finance and insurance at 19 per cent. The retail trade and consumer services industry was the least likely to do security checks at only seven per cent.

Professionals, such as teachers, health workers, police and IT personnel were most likely to undergo a security check (16 per cent) while managers (eight per cent) were the least likely.

Because the data was compiled before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent tightening of security, Duchesne said it’s safe to assume the prevalence of security checks has increased even more since 2001.

“In the travel industry and the airports, people are more careful as a result of 9/11, but (security checks) were on the rise before that,” she said.

The rise in security checks saw a corresponding decline in medical examinations, due in part to the loss of manufacturing jobs and automation, said Duchesne. Prior to 1980, one-quarter of new hires underwent a medical exam. That number dropped to only 11 per cent in 2000 and 2001.

“There was an important recession in 1981 and 1982 and there were a lot of jobs lost in manufacturing. Then, with increased gloabalization, a lot of the jobs that were formerly done here in North America are now being done in Third World countries and those jobs tend to be more labour intensive and are more likely to require strength and more likely people would have to go through a medical,” she said.

As with security checks, the two industries most likely to conduct medical exams were communications and other utilities and educational and health services, at 29 and 27 per cent of new hires each. However, primary and secondary product manufacturing, as well as forestry, mining, oil and gas extraction followed closely at about 25 per cent.

While the data showed drug tests were rarely used for screening before 1990, the use has increased to 2.2 per cent of new hires in 2000 and 2001. Use of these tests is higher in primary product manufacturing at nine per cent and in the technical and trades professions at 3.2 per cent. The article suggests continuing improvements in testing technology will lead to an increased use of drug screening in the future.

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