Instances of candidates providing false information to prospective employers increased in the first three months of 2011, with education, real estate, travel and hospitality firms seeing most such cases, says a report.

The findings are based on pre-employment background checks carried out between January and March in India by global risk mitigation entity First Advantage Corp.

"The first quarter of 2011 showed a slight increase in the overall discrepancy rate for background checks from 10.2 per cent in the last quarter to 10.9 per cent...," First Advantage Executive Managing Director (International) Wayne Tollemache said in a statement.

The discrepancy rate refers to inconsistencies found between the data provided by a job applicant and information gathered by First Advantage, which offers background screening services to its customers.

"Education, travel and hospitality and real estate sector companies had the most employment-related discrepancies," the statement noted.

According to the report, Mumbai, Meerut and Kanpur are the top three cities, where most instances of education-related discrepancies (of job applicants) were found.

"Sixty-seven per cent of all discrepancies observed involved associate level employees, even as the discrepancy rate for first-level supervisors has increased to 9 per cent compared to 6 per cent in Q4, 2010," it added.