I have spent the last year and a half researching and testing background check services for a consumer review site (http://www.CompleteReviews.net ) and in that time have run tons of background checks using many different companies. Employers will used a licensed background check provider usually and the reports are generated by an actual person. These reports usually take a couple of days to come back unless the company pays for very in-depth reports (or international background checks). These can take weeks.