Employee Theft Statistics By Age Group, Country And Facts
Updated · Oct 09, 2024
WHAT WE HAVE ON THIS PAGE
- Introduction
- Editor’s Choice
- General Facts
- Employee Theft Termination By Position
- Median Amount Loss By Theft
- Employee Attitude Regarding the Theft
- Distribution of Malicious E-mails Reported By Employees
- The Average Total Cost of a Theft in The Industrial Sector Worldwide
- Employee Theft Statistics By Country
- Employee Theft By Age Group
- Type of Employee Theft
- Employee Motivation For Theft
- Influence on Enterprises
- Preventative Measures
- Conclusion
Introduction
Employee Theft Statistics: Organizational behavior is sometimes influenced by employee theft statistics, which is why it remains a big issue for many enterprises globally, translating into huge money losses and diminished organizational morale. For organizations to be able to have perfect preventive measures, they need to understand the scale and scope of this issue fully. In recent years, employee theft has always been a big concern for various companies, regardless of their size.
Reports show that in the USA alone, 30% of all business losses are caused by employee theft, translating to about USD 50 billion worth of annual losses. This makes it a critical issue for companies, regardless of how big they are. This figure represented a slight increase from 2022, when it was about 48 billion US dollars (USUSD ). Retail businesses were more affected, with almost 35% of all theft cases committed by employees.
The recent increases in internal theft can be linked to different issues, such as the increasing sophistication of fraudulent schemes compared to previous years and economic pressures. This article discusses employee theft statistics for 2023 and 2024 as viewed from the perspective of a market researcher.
Editor’s Choice
- The retail industry incurs an average loss of USD 1,264 per episode of employee theft statistics.
- Inventory shrinkage in U.S. retail is 43% attributed to employee theft.
- At least once, 75% of employees have stolen from their employer.
- 33% of all business bankruptcies in the United States are caused by employee theft.
- On average, the case of employee theft statistics in retail went unnoticed for 14 months.
- Employee theft has happened to 64% of small businesses.
- The annual loss suffered by U.S. retailers due to employees stealing from them is USD 18 billion.
- 34% of job applications contain unverifiable information such as past employment history, education levels, or qualifications.
- 29% of employees admit to taking office supplies or cash without permission
- 55% believe certain conditions may allow them to steal from their employers
- 22% assert they will never take anything from their employers
- 47% have seen unlawful acts committed in the workplace
- Internal theft cases usually last around 16 months before detection occurs.
- 33% of small business bankruptcies are attributed to this vice
- 61% confess facing at least one unethical situation when working.
- Businesses lose USD 50 billion each year due to employee stealing.
- 57% of business frauds are committed by insiders, outsiders, or both.
- 22% of small business owners experienced employee theft.
- About 20% of data breaches happen because of people inside the organizations.
- Employers lose more than USD 1,551.66 each year because of dishonest retail workers.
- Usually, losses from embezzlement are around USD 357,650 per annum.
- 43% of workers lie about their actual hours worked.
- There is an investigation of fraud incidents reported in only 56% of companies.
- Employees often conceal fraud through falsified documents.
- Management is often the place where grifters work.
- 75% of employees have confessed to stealing from their bosses at least once.
- Employee theft amounts to as much as USD 50 billion every year across US businesses.
- Indeed, employee stealing affects 95% of US organizations.
- The thieves directly or indirectly face consequences for their acts in 80% of cases.
- In 43% of cases, theft is detected thanks to internal tips.
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General Facts
- Employee theft statistics worldwide indicate that organizations lose approximately 5% of their yearly sales through employee theft, leading to billions of dollars in losses annually.
- Employee embezzlement schemes often go unnoticed for an average period of around 16 months, causing substantial monetary losses.
- Generally, acts of employee fraud acknowledged by dishonesty or deceitful acts against their superiors, such as stealing from employers, are called employee fraud.
- Various company statistics demonstrate that pilferage from within happens in 95% of firms.
- On average, firms report about six incidents of fraud per year.
- Statistical evidence suggests that more than 75% of occupational fraud has been concentrated in high-risk sectors, where Operations account for a staggering 15%, Financial (14%), Executive/Upper Administration (12%), Commercial (11%), and Consumer Services (9%).
- Of all embezzlers, one-third work in accounting or finance departments.
- In 25% of these cases, the privileged user credentials were compromised and stolen.
- Employees’ embezzlement costs American firms 20 cents for every dollar they generate.
- Employee theft has a profound effect on businesses ranging from small start-ups to multinational entities. For example, according to a Hiscox poll conducted in 2022, employee theft costs small U.S. firms an annual average of USUSD 1.13 million, which is also corroborated by studies carried out by the University of Cincinnati for large enterprises.
- Industries such as banking, financial services provision, retailing, health care manufacture, and hospitality have reported high rates of employee theft owing to the large amount of stock available, sensitive information on hand, or extremely valuable assets.
- Employees may be compelled to rob their employers for different reasons, such as financial issues arising from dissatisfaction with pay or poor working conditions, addiction problems, personal finance difficulties, and lack of morality.
- To employee theft statistics, tips account for over 40% of all employee thefts, while other methods of identification include internal audits, management reviews, surveillance systems, and accidental discovery.
- Like any other crime involving theft, theft has irreversible repercussions that go beyond the loss of money; it affects company profitability, brand reputation, employee confidence, and, among other things, relationships with customers, suppliers, partners relevant to this scenario, and stakeholders who have invested in it.
- As with other crimes against property, the ramifications of robbery cannot be undone; for instance, it impacts an enterprise’s revenue, image in the marketplace, staff morale, and confidence, not to mention how they relate with their consumers, suppliers, and other collaborators or investors who are implicated in this whole scenario.
Employee Theft Termination By Position
(Reference: zippia.com)
- Reasons for stealing from an employer can be difficult to ascertain, especially if the offender remains mum about it. Nonetheless, we know the consequences of such crimes and how organizations tend to react when theft or fraud is detected.
- About 80% of wrongdoers are punished to various degrees.
- Only 45% of proprietors and executives are sacked, as opposed to 66% of supervisors and 76% of the workforce.
Median Amount Loss By Theft
(Reference: zippia.com)
- About employee theft statistics, financial statement fraud was the greatest consequence of stealing, leading to monthly losses of USD 39,800.
- Corruption, on the other hand, incurred a loss of USD 11,100; non-cash embezzlement lost approximately USD 6,000; and check and payment tampering accounted for a USD 4,600 loss, while billing fraud caused about USD 4,200 every month.
Employee Attitude Regarding the Theft
(Reference: statista.com)
- The employee theft statistics, conducted from November 20222 to January 2023, revealed that more than half of the people felt more vulnerable to identity theft than they did a few years ago.
- Moreover, 53% did think that their present-day precautions were enough to avoid any possibility of identifying theft.
Distribution of Malicious E-mails Reported By Employees
(Reference: statista.com)
- About employee theft statistics, four out of every ten malevolent minor emails received by workers globally were either response-based attacks or email impersonation attacks.
- Moreover, 58% of these emails were aimed at credentials theft, while only 1.3% were identified as malware delivery attempts.
The Average Total Cost of a Theft in The Industrial Sector Worldwide
(Reference: statista.com)
- With employee theft statistics, it was noted that USD 4.47 million had been spent due to data breaches, and this figure rose to USD 4.73 million during 2023.
- In 2019, the most surprising figure for the average expenses was put at USD 5.2 million.
- This is in contrast with the staggering USD 4.45 million global average cost of a data breach in all categories examined.
(Reference: statista.com)
- In 2017, the fraud detection and prevention (FDP) market was estimated at 19.5 billion dollars in the US. Its value is projected to surpass 63 billion dollars by 2023. Companies offer FDP solutions against fraudulent insurance claims, identity theft, and money laundering.
- By October 2018, approximately 23% of internet users had become victims of online identity theft. This includes credit card fraud, tax-related issues, and bank fraud.
- Technology-enabled frauds such as card-not-present (CNP) credit card fraud are gaining popularity, even though wire transfers still account for the highest value of fraud losses.
- Identity theft or Ponzi schemes like Bernie Madoff’s are often associated with financial fraud. However, the most commonly reported economic crime is asset misappropriation—pure theft. Some other offenses that can happen include bribery, accounting fraud, and insider trading. FDP vendors like IBM, Oracle, SAP, and FICO continually monitor and try to prevent these crimes while evolving to stay ahead of criminals.
Employee Theft Statistics By Country
(Reference: statista.com)
- India accounted for the greatest number of reported cases of identity theft within global comparative guidelines in 2022, with around 27.2 million adult victims.
- The US was in second place; approximately 13.5 million consumers suffered from identity theft that year. Japan was ranked third, registering three million annual incidences of this crime type.
Employee Theft By Age Group
- Finding precise employee theft statistics by age group is an uphill task; however, some studies and surveys suggest that age is a factor in theft.
- There’s evidence suggesting that youthful workers are considerably more susceptible to employee theft.
- As reported in ACFE’s “Report to the Nations,” workers who are under forty years old account for approximately 40% of occupational fraud cases. This could be due to factors such as financial constraints, job dissatisfaction, or naivety regarding consequences.
- As indicated by ACFE reports, younger or recently hired staff members tend to commit acts of stealing in their workplaces. Moreover, most offenders have worked for less than one year, showing no significant relationship between either age or length of service and stealing.
- This report noted that 53% of fraudsters were aged between 31 and 45 years.
- On average, they are 48 years old.
- Even though younger workers may be involved in employee theft more often, this could happen to anyone regardless of age. An analysis carried out by the ACFE showed that most cases of occupational fraud involved people aged 40-50, possibly because they have better access to resources, face higher work demands, or experience more financial pressure.
- Some other reasons (not just how old you are) that lead to theft within your organization are financial distress, job dissatisfaction, personal financial problems, and moral violations. Simply being old is not enough reason to assume that you are a probable perpetrator; one should also take into account one’s situation and other risk factors.
- To ensure that all workers don’t steal at any age, there must be preventative measures against it and detection systems within an organization. This involves having good internal controls, conducting periodic audits, conducting ethical training programs, and encouraging anonymous reporting systems.
Type of Employee Theft
(Reference: zippia.com)
- 43% of thefts are detected initially through internal tips. Of those who report fraud, 50% are internal employees, 22% are customers, and 15% prefer to remain anonymous.
- In organizations, 15% of fraud cases are discovered through internal audits, 12% through management reviews, and 5% are found accidentally.
- For instance, asset misappropriation was the most widespread type of theft in 2020, accounting for 86% of cases.
- This involves employees stealing or misusing company resources but usually leads to the lowest median loss of USD 100,000 per incident. While it only constitutes about 10% of schemes, financial statement fraud is also the most costly since it includes deliberate misstatements or omissions found in such statements.
Employee Motivation For Theft
- About employee theft statistics, 34% of workers who commit theft have been with their company for five years or longer.
- First-time offenders are responsible for 60% of all work-related thefts committed by employees.
- 23% of stealing employees feel they have a right to do so.
- The desire for excitement motivates 29% of workers who steal.
- Among those who engage in theft offenses, 35% fall within the age bracket 2 of 5-34 years.
- Males have a higher propensity for stealing than females at workplaces.
- Previous criminal records do not exist in 70% of employee thieves.
- 86% believe they will escape detection when committing theft.
- Among thieves, 20% come from clerical jobs.
- 36% of examining staff who stole were part of that company for over five years.
- 78% of hardworking thieves never went through police hands before.
- 5Fifty-four guilty workers still owe some loyalty to their bosses while committing robbery.
- 27% of embezzlers do so as a way out to clear their debts.
- 31% of underpaid individuals rationalize robbery as legitimate conduct on their part.
- More than half (61%) of first-time criminals form a broad network of thieves within the ranks of workers.
- They have employed 23% of present-day robbers for over five years.
- 45% of theft-related employees have inadequate finances.
- 41% of workers may resort to theft due to economic problems.
Influence on Enterprises
- Employee larceny’s financial effect reaches further than immediate losses because it also encompasses indirect costs incurred by companies, such as rising insurance rates, decreased productivity levels, and damaged names.
- According to employee theft statistics in 2023, these indirect expenses accounted for about 20% of total theft losses, estimated at almost 10 billion US dollars. The prediction for 2024 is that this amount would increase in tandem with the growth depicted in overall theft statistics, resulting in nearly 10.4 billion US dollars.
- Moreover, workplace disposition and reliance can be gravely impacted by staff pilfering.
- Companies that have high rates of internal stealing tend to notice an upsurge in the number of workers who quit their jobs and a downtrend in how much they are involved with work, which causes even larger financial losses.
Preventative Measures
- Businesses are combating the rise in employee theft through increasingly investing in preventative measures.
- In 2023, businesses in the United States would have spent an estimated USD 8 billion US dollars on theft prevention measures such as surveillance systems, employee training, and fraud detection software. This reflected a 10% increase from 2022, highlighting the growing recognition of proactive measures.
- Expenditures on theft prevention are expected to rise to USD 8.5 billion US dollars in 2024 as companies continue to invest in new technologies and strategies to protect their assets.
- Moreover, companies are focusing on setting up a culture of transparency and accountability, which has been proven to reduce the chances of insider theft risks.
Conclusion
Employee theft is still a major challenge for industries all over the world. About employee theft statistics from 2023 and projections for 2024, it is getting worse in terms of finances lost and sophisticated schemes being employed in stealing.
Companies should keep on investing in preventive measures to reduce the impact of employee theft. Such actions would help guard their resources against them, minimize financial losses, and keep the workplace environment harmonious.
Sources
FAQ.
The loss of money by businesses due to employees stealing from them is quite substantial. It is estimated that in the US alone, about $50 billion is lost each year due to employee theft, but retail businesses suffer the most. For instance, in 2023, the average costs of data breaches for the industrial sector were estimated at $4.73 million. Furthermore, in the retail sector alone, organisations reportedly lose about $18 billion annually due to employee theft.
On average, employees steal and go unnoticed for almost 16 months. This sustained detection period often arises because thieves employ advanced techniques while monitoring and identifying fraud cases, which is an arduous task for companies.
One of many reasons workers may steal from their employers is financial problems, a sense of entitlement, thrill-seeking, or dissatisfaction with salary level, among others. About one-third (34%) of all ranches have worked with their representatives for more than five years, while 60% are freshers. Management of personal debts or other perceived acts of wage inequity may also motivate some people to consider pilfering.
When employee theft is detected, about 80% of perpetrators face some form of punishment. However, the response varies by position: 45% of executives and owners are terminated, compared to 66% of managers and 76% of general employees. This discrepancy highlights the differences in accountability and consequences based on job roles.
Businesses can invest in various preventative measures to combat employee theft, including surveillance systems, employee training, and fraud detection software. In 2023, U.S. companies spent an estimated $8 billion on theft prevention, with expenditures expected to increase to $8.5 billion in 2024. Creating a culture of transparency and accountability also helps mitigate insider theft risks.
Joseph D'Souza founded Sci-Tech Today as a personal passion project to share statistics, expert analysis, product reviews, and experiences with tech gadgets. Over time, it evolved into a full-scale tech blog specializing in core science and technology. Founded in 2004 by Joseph D’Souza, Sci-Tech Today has become a leading voice in the realms of science and technology. This platform is dedicated to delivering in-depth, well-researched statistics, facts, charts, and graphs that industry experts rigorously verify. The aim is to illuminate the complexities of technological innovations and scientific discoveries through clear and comprehensive information.
