You Hire Through Your Network. The Next Generation Isn't In It.

Article

Spend time at any business gathering this year and you'll hear the same two complaints, often from the same owner: young people don't want to work, and good staff are impossible to find. Here's the awkward part. Youth unemployment hit its highest level in fifteen years outside the pandemic last fall, and at 12.6% in July it still sits well above the pre-pandemic average of 10.8%. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business counted 431,500 unemployed young Canadians as of March. The candidates exist. They can't find you — and that's a channel problem, not a work-ethic problem.

The referral trap

CFIB surveyed 1,540 small business owners this winter for its Work in Progress report on youth hiring. The most common recruiting method, by a wide margin: personal connections, used by 62% of owners . The instinct makes sense, and for many Punjabi-Canadian business owners it's practically the house system — a longtime customer's kid, a referral from an owner you trust, someone whose family you know. Referrals arrive pre-vetted. Somebody's reputation stands behind them.

The trouble is on the other side of the market. Nearly three-quarters of young job seekers (73%) look for work on online job boards. Barely half think to ask their personal networks. So the owner hires through relationships while the candidate refreshes Indeed, and neither can see the other. The standard advice tells young people to network harder. That's backwards. They're searching exactly where openings are supposed to be posted — it's the openings that never show up there.

Your posting screens out the people you say you want

Owners in the same survey were blunt about what matters in a young hire: positive attitude (91%), motivation (84%), professionalism (76%). Educational attainment came dead last at 13%, with prior work experience barely ahead at 24%. Yet entry-level postings routinely demand experience for jobs meant to be someone's first. Two in five young people say a lack of experience or qualifications has kept them out of roles, and more than half say applications routinely go unanswered.

If attitude is what you're hiring for, write the posting that way. Cut the requirements to what the job genuinely needs, say plainly that you'll train, and answer applicants even when it's a no. The candidate you ignore at 19 is the customer, employee, or referral source you'll meet again at 25.

The channel with a 73% keep rate

Buried in CFIB's data is the strongest hiring result in the whole report, attached to the channel owners use least. Fewer than one in five small businesses recruit through co-op or internship programs. Among those that do, 89% said getting a student into the business was easy, 73% found it more effective than their other hiring channels — and 73% permanently hired the student when the placement ended.

Sit with that last number. A co-op term is a paid, structured working interview that runs ten weeks or more. You watch someone handle your customers, your systems, and your Tuesday-afternoon chaos before committing to anything. CFIB estimates a small firm spends at least 40 hours a year training one inexperienced hire; a placement puts those hours into someone you've already seen work. Ontario owners lean on this channel more than anywhere else in Canada — 30% use co-op programs — which is worth remembering next time a competitor wonders aloud where all the good people went.

Two governments will share the wages

The economics are better than most owners assume.

Ontario's Co-operative Education Tax Credit is a refundable credit worth 25–30% of the wages paid to a co-op student from an Ontario college or university, up to $3,000 per placement. Placements generally run at least ten consecutive weeks, and a longer internship can count as more than one placement. Corporations claim it on Schedule 550, unincorporated owners on form ON479 — and keep the school's certification letter for seven years.

The federal Student Work Placement Program pays employers up to $5,000 per student placement, with applications open year-round through industry delivery partners — including the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, Trucking HR Canada, Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium, and Food Processing Skills Canada, which map neatly onto the sectors where many Punjabi-Canadian businesses operate.

One caution: government assistance reduces the wage base you can claim the Ontario credit against, so the two programs stack imperfectly. Have your accountant run the numbers before you count on both maximums.

What to do with this

Post openings where young people actually look, not only where your network lives. Strip out experience requirements the job doesn't need and hire for the attitude you keep saying you want. Call the co-op office at your nearest college or university before your next hire, not after — their whole job is sending you students. And take the money on the table: a $3,000 credit plus a $5,000 subsidy turns a hiring gamble into a subsidized trial run.

The other fix for a network that can't see new talent is to widen the network. That's much of what our Chamber exists to do — the monthly socials and mixers on our events page put owners in the same room as the students and young professionals who are otherwise a job board away.

This is general information, not tax or hiring advice. Confirm program details and eligibility with a qualified professional before you claim anything.

Sources

CFIB, Work in Progress: Bridging the Gap Between Small Businesses and Canada's Youth (May 2026)

Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, July 2026 — The Daily (August 7, 2026)

Government of Ontario, Co-operative Education Tax Credit

Employment and Social Development Canada, Student Work Placement Program — wage subsidies