Should I give my social security number on a job application?
Employers sometimes require your social security number and birthday during the initial application phase to run third-party background checks before making a formal offer. This mandatory requirement creates severe reluctance, forcing applicants to pause and investigate whether the job listing is actually a scam site.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- People have been saying this in most months since September 2026.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
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Should I give my social security number on a job application?
- 1Refusing to provide the SSN and walking away from the job applicationDid this help you?
- 2Freezing credit with major credit reporting agencies before submitting personal detailsDid this help you?
- 3Contacting HR to verify the legitimacy of the third-party companyDid this help you?
- 4Abandoning the application entirelyDid this help you?
- 5Checking to see if the posting is a scam site before proceedingDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I've come across THREE DIFFERENT COMPANIES that are REQUIRING candidates to enter their graduation dates.”source ↗
“I've had one that REQUIRES you to answer if you're trans or not. No option to "decline to state" or anything.”source ↗
“I had one that REQUIRED a social security number (*and no it wasn't a scam job, they were for real!*).”source ↗
“Don't even get me started on the jobs that required you to make an account just to apply. Fork right off with that garbage.”source ↗
“I literally just had this happen with a city job where it asked me for my social security number and birthday. I had to check to see if it was a scam site”source ↗
“But they havent hired me yet. Its the application phase. I mean i submitted my application and now theyre doing a background check, that too theyre not doing it directly theyre making some third party do that”source ↗
“Should I give it or not? Ive mailed the hr that im reluctant to provide it but I mean... what should I do.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Where to get trustworthy employment docs for a new hire
- 4Why does working reduce your Social Security benefits?
- 5How to figure out teacher tattoo policies when job hunting
- 4Do companies still sponsor visas for entry-level accounting jobs?
- 2Why do job interviews require weeks of free take-home work?
- 8Job applications requiring past supervisor references