What is the hidden job market?
The hidden job market is the set of openings that get filled without a public job ad, or before the ad matters. A manager mentions a need to a colleague, someone gets referred, or a person who wrote in at the right moment is asked to interview. Postings may follow later, or not at all.
Canada's Job Bank describes it plainly on its page on how to search for jobs, last modified May 30, 2024. It says "In many cases, job vacancies are filled informally" and that information about openings "is often circulated among managers, employees" before it reaches the public. It gives the employer's reason too: posting ads "can be costly and take time."
The same page names networking as "an effective way to search for jobs in the hidden job market." It lists joining a professional association, building a LinkedIn profile and going to seminars or workshops as ways to do it.
Is it true that 70 to 80 percent of jobs are never posted?
Nobody has shown that. The figure is repeated in many career books and articles, but no one has traced it to a study. A College Recruiter article republished by Fresno State's career center on July 11, 2024 says its origin is "difficult to trace to a single source."
The same article says the number "likely originated from anecdotal evidence and informal surveys rather than rigorous, peer-reviewed research." It adds that job boards, company career pages and LinkedIn have made more openings visible, so the hidden share is hard to pin down and varies by industry, company size and place.
So drop the percentage and keep the idea. Some jobs are filled through people before or instead of an ad, and you can reach more of them by talking to people. How many depends on your field, your level and your city.
Which roles are most likely to go unposted?
Roles filled from inside a company, roles a manager can fill from a known name, and early openings that haven't reached the recruiter yet. Small firms that can't afford ads are another source. Ontario's posting rules show where some of this sits, because they leave certain kinds of hiring out of the public posting definition.
Ontario's guide to requirements for publicly advertised job postings defines a covered posting as an external one advertised "to the general public in any manner." It excludes "a posting for a position that is restricted to existing employees of the employer." It also excludes a general "we are hiring" campaign that names no specific position.
None of that says how many jobs are hidden. It does tell you that internal moves and general talent campaigns sit outside the public posting rules. If you want an internal opening at a company where you don't work yet, a person inside is often how you hear about it.
What does the research say about finding jobs through people?
The research is mixed, and it points to direct contact with employers as much as to friends. A Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis study of US survey data found contacting employers directly was both the most common and the most effective search method. Separately, a large LinkedIn experiment found moderately weak ties helped people change jobs most.
In "Job Searching: Some Methods Yield Better Results than Others", published in January 2014, James Eubanks and David Wiczer used Current Population Survey data from 1976 to 2011. They found 65.7 percent of searches involved contacting employers directly and 17.5 percent involved friends or relatives. They wrote that "The most effective method is to directly contact potential employers."
The same study found that people who used their network connections "actually find jobs at a slower rate than the average job seeker." That covers unemployed people asking friends and relatives in general. It doesn't measure targeted outreach to people in your field, which is what most hidden job market advice means.
The LinkedIn study is described in an MIT News article dated September 15, 2022. It followed about 20 million LinkedIn users over five years. Co-author Sinan Aral said "Moderately weak ties are the best," with the value of a tie peaking at around 10 mutual connections. He added that weak ties are better in more digital industries, while "In analog industries, stronger ties can be more important."
How do you find roles that are never posted?
Pick a short list of employers, find people who work there, ask them for a short conversation, and contact hiring managers directly when you have something specific to offer. Keep applying to posted roles at the same time. The hidden market is a second channel, and it works alongside postings.
The table below sets out the main routes, what each involves, and where the evidence for it comes from. The "what to do" column is advice.
| Route | What it means | Evidence | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct contact with employers | Writing to a company or hiring manager about work you could do | St. Louis Fed study: most common and most effective method | Send a short note naming the problem you could help with |
| Moderately weak ties | People you know a little, often with some mutual contacts | MIT News on the LinkedIn study | List former colleagues, classmates and contacts of contacts |
| Referrals | An employee puts your name forward for a role | Job Bank: vacancies often filled informally | Ask after a conversation, never in the first message |
| Professional associations and events | Meeting people in your field in person or online | Job Bank lists these as networking routes | Go to one event a month and follow up within two days |
| Career pages | Openings a company lists on its own site | Job Bank: most employers have a careers section | Check your target list weekly, before roles spread to boards |
Here is an example list for one week, made up for this page. It assumes you have about five hours for outreach on top of applications.
- Choose 10 target employers where your skills fit.
- Find two people at each one: someone in the team you want and someone a level above.
- Send five short messages asking for 15 to 20 minutes of advice.
- Check each target's careers page and apply to anything that fits.
- Write down every reply, and follow up once after 7 business days with anyone who didn't answer.
What do you say when you reach out?
Ask for advice or information, keep it under 100 words, and give the person a reason you chose them. Don't ask for a job in the first message. A request for a short call is easy to say yes to, and Simon Fraser University's career centre warns that asking for a job can lead to a rejection.
Here is an example message to someone you know a little.
Hi Priya, we worked together on the 2023 vendor review at Northfield. I'm looking at operations roles in logistics and saw you moved to Carrow Freight last year. Could I ask you three questions about how your team works? Twenty minutes by phone, any day next week. Thanks, Sam
Here is an example message to a hiring manager you don't know.
Hi Ms. Daley, I read that Carrow is opening a second warehouse in Mississauga. I ran receiving at a 40-person site for three years and cut dock wait times by a third. If you are building that team, I would value 15 minutes to learn what you need. Sam Lee
The guide to networking email templates has more versions, including follow-ups. The page on how to get a referral covers when and how to ask a contact to put your name forward.
How do you keep this from taking over your whole search?
Set a weekly number for outreach and a weekly number for applications, and track both. After four weeks, look at which channel produced conversations and interviews. Shift time toward what works for your field instead of following a rule about how most jobs are filled.
A simple tracker needs five columns: name, company, date contacted, reply, and next step. Add a column for the source of each interview, so you can see whether postings, referrals or direct contact brought it in. The page on how many applications it takes to get a job helps set the posting side.
Check posted roles with care while you do this. The guide to ghost jobs explains how to spot ads that may not lead anywhere. In Canada, the list of job search sites in Canada covers boards that pull from employers' own career pages.
When a contact mentions a real opening, tailor your resume to it before you send it. The free resume optimizer rewrites the lines that matter for the job and keeps your facts. Make sure your profile can be found too, since the people you write to will look you up. The page on how recruiters search LinkedIn explains what they see.