Contact former employers and other acquaintances to verify applicants' references, employment, health history, or social behavior.

“Contact former employers and other acquaintances to verify applicants' references, employment, health history, or social behavior.” is a task performed by Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks. Among the occupation's 16 rated tasks, workers place it 3rd by importance (#14 most important).

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Collect data about consumer needs or opinions. in Getting Information

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T3.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Evaluate customers' computerized credit records and payment histories to decide whether to approve new credit, based on predetermined standards. · importance 4.6
• Keep records of customers' charges and payments. · importance 4.5
• Compile and analyze credit information gathered by investigation. · importance 4.4
• File sales slips in customers' ledgers for billing purposes. · importance 4.4
• Obtain information about potential creditors from banks, credit bureaus, and other credit services, and provide reciprocal information if requested. · importance 4.0
• Interview credit applicants by telephone or in person to obtain personal and financial data needed to complete credit report. · importance 4.0
• Receive charge slips or credit applications by mail, or receive information from salespeople or merchants by telephone. · importance 3.9
• Mail charge statements to customers. · importance 3.8
• Examine city directories and public records to verify residence property ownership, bankruptcies, liens, arrest record, or unpaid taxes of applicants. · importance 3.4
• Relay credit report information to subscribers by mail or by telephone. · importance 3.3
• Prepare credit cards or charge account plates. · importance 3.0
• Call customers to collect payment on delinquent accounts.
• Consult with customers to resolve complaints or verify financial or credit transactions.
• Prepare reports of findings and recommendations.

See all tasks on the Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-23310,
  title  = {Contact former employers and other acquaintances to verify applicants' references, employment, health history, or social behavior.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-23310}
}