Study: Bad credit no predictor of stealing

BATON ROUGE, La., Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Some companies say they check prospective employees' credit scores because those with a low score may steal, but U.S. researchers say there is no link.

Jeremy Bernerth of Louisiana State University's E.J. Ourso College of Business said a survey of employers by the Society for Human Resource Management found 60 percent conducted credit checks for some or all candidates as part of the hiring process.

Bernerth and colleagues at Texas Tech University and Northern Illinois University found no correlation between poor credit scores and bad behavior on the job.

"Most companies attempt to justify the use of credit scores because they think such employees will end up stealing, but our research suggests that might not be the case," Bernerth said in a statement. "It was telling that poor credit scores were not correlated to theft and other deviant types of work behaviors."

However, the researchers found a link between credit scores and personality types -- with easy-going people posting worse credit scores than disagreeable and rude individuals.

"This suggests that agreeable individuals might get themselves in trouble by co-signing loans for friends or family or taking out additional credit cards at the suggestion of store clerks," Bernerth said.