New data show that pre-employment drug screenings alone may not be enough of a deterrent for workers.
The random urine test positive rate is 47% higher than the pre-employment rate in general industry, according to Quest Diagnostics.
In jobs where random drug testing is mandated by federal law, the opposite is true. The random rate is 18% lower than the pre-employment rate.
Workers may think they need to be “on good behavior” when applying for jobs. After they’re hired, old habits may come back.
Here are the positive test rates reported by Quest:
- general workforce, pre-hire: 3.6%
- general workforce, random, 5.3%
- federally-mandated, pre-hire: 1.7%, and
- federally-mandated, random: 1.4%.
Overall, Quest says drug use among employees and applicants in the general workforce declined to 3.6% in 2008 from 3.8% in 2007.
Quest is a provider of drug testing services. More data is available here.
