I think most of the jobs that use this kind of filtering are also low wage / low prestige where churn and training represent a significant fraction of the labor cost. So they are probably simply selecting for a certain degree of precarity & economic desperation, trying to exclude people who are looking for a little extra money to meet personal goals or fill periods between better paid work.

I'm trying to phrase this neutrally but IMO this motive is just as bad.

I took a more general test at a job agency, as there was warehouse work, cleaning, assembly line and so on available.

I argued at the end that I had 100%, since 295 × 3 (or something) could not possibly be the answer given on the answer sheet, as the last digit wasn't 5.

They eventually found a calculator and found their answer sheet was wrong. Supposedly, no-one had noticed before, though now I wonder if it's possible it was a test of personality.

Probably not, as many people probably would find that question difficult on a test with questions like "Put Smith, Jones and Patel in alphabetical order".

Money is becoming uncommon in New Zealand for payment. Some shops don't accept cash or otherwise make it more difficult to use.

Employees can steal other things, but the opportunity to steal money has been significantly reduced.