Two thirds of bosses have admitted they are more likely to choose the most attractive candidate for a job.

Research by Hirescores.com revealed the unsurprising fact that employers will often choose good-looking candidates when picking new recruits.

The website wanted to investigate the reasons behind an employer's decision to hire certain people over others and polled more than 1,250 bosses. When asked "would you hire a candidate who had equal academic strengths as another, but was better looking?", two thirds said yes, with a further nine percent admitting they had hired some based purely on the way that they looked.

The question "do you think that those who are more attractive make better employees?" was met with a yes from a third of bosses and just over half of these admitted they thought the most attractive employees were likely to be the most confident in the workplace.

When asked the multi answer question “what factors would make someone more employable to you?”, 81 percent said they believed the ability to do the actual job was the most important factor in hiring a candidate.

The top five factors that affect a candidate’s employability are:

1. Ability to do the job (81 percent)
2. Qualifications (73 percent)
3. Social skills (71 percent)
4. Physical appearance (67 percent)
5. Hygiene (61 percent)

Lisette Howlett, HireScores.com managing director, said: "It's very important to look at all the factors when you're looking to employ someone, regardless of what job it is for. The hiring decision needs to take everything into account: motivation, attitude, short and longer term business needs and whether the candidate has the best ability to do the job."