For job applicants, pre-employment tests often add anxiety to an already stressful process.

Although some job applicants may dread a pre-employment test, it may help to motivate them after their hiring.

These are hardly the questions that someone applying for a programming job at I.B.M. would expect on a pre-employment test.

For retail customers I make pre-employment tests, followed by periodic testing every six months for cashiers and security people.

But the district held fast on the pre-employment test, according to the union president, Anthony Conetta.

Viewed as the simplest and cheapest way to filter out drug users, pre-employment tests are also considered an effective deterrent.

The use of pre-employment tests has been increasing as businesses look for ways to winnow the rising pool of candidates in this tight job market.

And back experts are challenging the usefulness of pre-employment tests being used in an attempt to screen out workers most likely to suffer back injuries.

"We took marketing surveys that showed a lot of families might be interested and a lot of people going for pre-employment tests."

People who were found in pre-employment tests to have used marijuana or cocaine had higher rates of work-related accidents and absenteeism than others, researchers said today.