What U.S. employers report paying, choosing, and struggling with, and how to benchmark your own program.
Why employers screen: liability protection (68%), regulatory requirement (54%), workplace safety (49%), confirming candidate qualifications (41%), and insurance/bonding requirements (19%).
The 11% figure for switching in the past 12 months lines up closely with PBSA’s own published survey, which found 10% had switched or planned to, a useful cross-check on the modelled data.
Among employers who did switch, the top reasons were turnaround time (41%), pricing (37%), poor service (33%), needing report types their provider didn’t offer (19%), and compliance concerns (14%).
The market has consolidated quickly: First Advantage and Sterling merged in October 2024 in a $2.2B deal, GoodHire has operated as a Checkr brand since 2022, HireRight went private in June 2024, and DISA has acquired five or more businesses in recent years.
Employers who never switch providers pay a raw 21% premium versus employers who have switched at least once. After adjusting for company size, that gap narrows to a still-meaningful 9%.
Three distinct numbers all get called "price": total spend per hire rises with company size, unit price per individual check falls with company size (larger buyers negotiate volume pricing), and the spread between employers is wide at every size band.
| Report type | Avg. price |
|---|---|
| SSN trace | $7 |
| Motor vehicle record (MVR) | $12 |
| License verification | $13 |
| Education verification | $14 |
| Credit report | $14 |
| Federal criminal search | $15 |
| National criminal database | $20 |
| County criminal search | $21 |
| Employment verification | $22 |
| Drug screening | $42 |
| Company size | Spend / hire | Units / hire | Price / county search |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–9 employees | $46 | 2.5 | $27 |
| 10–49 employees | $54 | 3.1 | $24 |
| 50–99 employees | $66 | 3.8 | $21 |
| 100–249 employees | $76 | 4.6 | $18 |
| 250–499 employees | $83 | 6.1 | $14 |
| 500+ employees | $88 | 8.8 | $12 |
| All employers | $64 | 4.2 | $21 |
That number isn’t flat across company sizes, it forms an arc. Only 14% of the smallest employers (1–9 employees) go integrated-first, mostly because 74% of businesses that size use no formal applicant tracking system at all. Integrated-first buying peaks at 61% in the 100–249 employee range, where an ATS bundle is genuinely convenient, then falls back to 47% at 250–499 employees and just 29% at 500+ employees.
Large employers outgrow the bundle for specific reasons: the bundled provider didn’t offer a report type they needed (48%), turnaround was too slow at their volume (41%), cost at volume (39%), wanting a dedicated account team (34%), and coverage gaps (27%).
Payroll and HR suites with built-in hiring tools (ADP, Paychex, Paycor, isolved, Paylocity, Gusto, BambooHR, Rippling) account for 42% of employers combined, far more than dedicated ATS platforms (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workday, iCIMS, SuccessFactors), which account for only about 2%.
The 19-point gap between employers who say integration matters (43%) and those who say they actually have it (24%) is one of the clearest unmet-need signals in the whole dataset.
Among employers reporting a negative experience: turnaround slower than promised (44%), poor or slow customer support (36%), a confusing adverse-action/compliance process (31%), inconsistent report accuracy (27%), and pricing surprises or hidden fees (24%).
The adverse-action/compliance process almost certainly carries the highest real cost of any complaint on this list, given FCRA litigation exposure, even though it ranks third by how often employers say it bothers them. Report accuracy is the top concern of regulators, but it ranks lower here because this measures who feels the pain, not how often the underlying problem actually occurs.
| Report type | Complaint rate |
|---|---|
| Employment verification | 47% |
| County criminal search | 41% |
| National criminal database | 38% |
| Education verification | 29% |
| Professional license verification | 24% |
| Credit report | 19% |
| Motor vehicle record (MVR) | 12% |
| Drug screening | 9% |
| Sex offender registry | 7% |
| SSN trace | 4% |
PBSA (formerly NAPBS) accreditation covers six audit areas: information security, legal and compliance, client education, researcher and data standards, verification service standards, and general business practices. Accreditation is a distinct, higher bar than simple membership.
Among employers familiar with the program, 71% call it a meaningful signal, but 40% are unsure whether their own provider even holds it. Accreditation runs on a five-year cycle with a year-three surveillance audit.
| Industry | Screens every hire | Avg. spend / hire | Turnaround tolerance | Top pain point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Services & Insurance | 96% | $101 | 3–5 days | Compliance / adverse-action complexity |
| Healthcare & Social Assistance | 94% | $86 | 1–2 days | Turnaround vs. credentialing deadlines |
| Transportation & Logistics | 91% | $77 | 1–2 days | DOT-specific compliance complexity |
| Education & Nonprofit | 87% | $59 | 3–5 days | State-specific requirements add complexity |
| Professional & Business Services | 78% | $64 | 2–3 days | Verification completion rates |
| Manufacturing | 76% | $48 | 1–2 days | Turnaround on high-volume seasonal hiring |
| Technology & Software | 73% | $68 | 2–3 days | Coverage for remote, multi-state, international hires |
| Construction & Skilled Trades | 66% | $52 | 1–2 days | Coverage gaps in rural / multi-state counties |
| Retail & Hospitality | 58% | $37 | Same day – 1 day | Cost per hire at high volume |
| Company size | Screens every hire | Spend / hire | Price / county search | Top vendor priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–9 employees | 52% | $46 | $27 | Price / simplicity |
| 10–49 employees | 71% | $54 | $24 | Turnaround time |
| 50–99 employees | 82% | $66 | $21 | Turnaround / reliability |
| 100–249 employees | 89% | $76 | $18 | ATS / HRIS integration |
| 250–499 employees | 94% | $83 | $14 | Compliance support & account team |
| 500+ employees | 97% | $88 | $12 | Verification completion & volume SLAs |
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