In today’s evolving labor market, the employment screening landscape is undergoing a significant transformation. The traditional methods of verifying income and employment are being reimagined to keep pace with economic shifts, digital expectations, and the growing complexity of workforce dynamics. As organizations contend with an influx of applications, resume discrepancies, and evolving workforce structures, the demand for accurate, secure, and efficient verifications has never been more pressing.
A Workforce in Transition
The current employment environment is marked by a distinct shift toward lower-wage industries, which now account for nearly 88% of job growth in 2024. White-collar job creation, in contrast, has declined. Industries such as retail, staffing, food services, education, and healthcare are driving employment gains, while sectors like technology and professional services experience stagnation or contraction. (Experian, 2024)
Geographically, unemployment remains concentrated in regions impacted by remote work trends and industry-specific slowdowns. These changes in job distribution and employment types underscore the need for more adaptive and inclusive verification processes that can accommodate a broader spectrum of worker experiences—from traditional W-2 employees to gig economy participants.
The Verification Bottleneck
At the core of employment screening lies a critical step: verification. While often overlooked, verification has a profound impact on hiring outcomes, onboarding timelines, and organizational risk. The risks of poor verification—from hiring the wrong candidate to facing compliance pitfalls—are high. Resume inconsistencies are increasingly common, making robust verification processes essential to mitigate liability and protect organizational integrity.
Recruiters are also grappling with scale. Many employers report receiving thousands of applications, often from automated tools, creating noise and reducing the signal necessary to identify truly qualified candidates. In high-volume hiring environments, the absence of efficient screening tools can quickly lead to operational inefficiencies and hiring errors.
Modernizing Research Verifications
The industry is at an inflection point. Legacy methods of verification—manual phone calls, faxed documents, and mailed records—are no longer viable at scale. As a result, the sector has shifted toward instant digital verifications sourced directly from employers and payroll providers. These methods, supplemented by consumer-permissioned workflows, offer a scalable and more accurate alternative.
However, not all employees can be verified through instant or consumer-permissioned methods, especially those in small businesses or with multiple jobs. This is where research verifications, long considered a fallback option, are being reengineered.
Today, a digital-first approach is transforming research verifications into a strategic asset. This evolution includes multi-channel support: call centers for live interactions, online smart forms for asynchronous data entry, and conversational AI that guides users through the process intuitively. Such flexibility ensures that verifications are accessible, efficient, and reflective of how people communicate in the digital age.
Consumer Engagement as a Verification Tool
A key innovation in the verification space is the rise of consumer-permissioned access. These workflows empower individuals to authorize access to their payroll or earnings data directly—often through secure, embedded interfaces or mobile prompts. This not only broadens the verification net to include gig workers and contractors but also strengthens data integrity by retrieving information from the source.
Interestingly, many hourly and gig workers are already familiar with this kind of access, given their reliance on apps for earnings and scheduling. As comfort with these tools grows, so too does the potential for consumer-permissioned verifications to become a mainstream standard.
Nevertheless, it's important to acknowledge that not every candidate is willing or able to engage with digital verification methods. That’s why the ongoing development of research verifications remains critical. Ensuring that all candidates—regardless of role, industry, or digital fluency—can be verified effectively is essential to creating an equitable hiring process.
Toward a Holistic Verification Ecosystem
Looking ahead, the employment screening industry is poised to adopt a more comprehensive approach. Income and employment verifications are no longer standalone processes—they are part of a broader ecosystem that includes identity verification, fraud prevention, and compliance validation. Integrating these components through automation and modern digital infrastructure enhances both security and decision-making.
Organizations now play dual roles in this ecosystem: as both verifiers (providing information about current and former employees) and consumers (seeking data for new hires). This dual perspective fosters greater alignment around the need for transparency, efficiency, and data integrity.
The vision for the future is clear. Verification processes must be fast, flexible, and fair—capable of handling the complexity of today’s labor market without compromising on accuracy or candidate experience. By reimagining research verifications through the lens of innovation and inclusivity, the industry is not only solving present-day problems but also laying the groundwork for a more agile and resilient workforce infrastructure.
Explore the Future of Employment Screening
Want to dive deeper into the trends and innovations shaping modern employment verification? Watch the full webinar, Reimagining Research Verifications for Employment Screening, featuring industry experts from Experian.
👉 Watch the webinar now
Troy Huff, Director of Product Management, Experian Employer Services, Reimagining Research Verifications for Employment Screening webinar, 2024. According to Hoff, in 2024, nearly 88% of new job growth occurred in lower-wage industries, highlighting a significant shift in workforce composition post-COVID.
