Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association

Municipal recruiters, rejoice! Studies continue to find that what Gen Z wants most from their career happens to be exactly what the public sector already offers: this is a generation seeking purpose, stability and community. Some may just need a little help connecting that to a government job.

In a 2024 study published in Personnel Review, a team of Canadian researchers surveyed millennials as they entered the workforce, then asked the same questions to Gen Z a decade later. What the youth want from their employers has shifted seismically, from millennials’ “great expectations” of quick promotions and steady raises to a generation that’s much more pragmatic, prioritizing security, stability and work-life balance ahead of rapid advancement, and gravitating toward employers whose values match their own.

In another survey by First Onsite and Angus Reid, 65 per cent of Canadian Gen Z said they want to work in an industry that helps people. But a 2025 TD survey found almost the same percentage of Gen Z Canadians feel financial stress multiple times a week — more than any other generation. Having come of age in near back-to-back recessions, kids today have known only a world of unprecedented uncertainty.

But what if they had a clear path into the workforce, one that started when they were still in school and run from a first co-op work term to repeat work terms, to a return offer and ultimately a full-time role? The University of Toronto Scarborough’s Arts and Science Co-op Office does just that, and its staff handle much of the legwork in building these co-op talent pipelines.

It starts with a competitive wage, and getting it right starts with knowing the going rate. Mercer Canada’s 2025 New Graduate and Generation Z Compensation Survey, which surveyed more than 100 Canadian organizations, found Gen Z wants a work experience that’s “fair, flexible, transparent, and growth-oriented.” Student wages can be benchmarked against three reference points: university co-op data to set a baseline, private-sector postings to gauge the competition, and municipal peers as an equity anchor.

U of T Scarborough Arts and Science co-op students average about $20 an hour — closer to $18 in psychology and health studies, and around $26 in computer science, mathematics and statistics, though many students earn more. Wages climb with each term, so municipalities can build pay bands around co-op terms and advertise that pathway from the first posting.

The public sector’s real edge is everything money can’t buy, starting with meaning. On top of wanting to help people, 58 per cent of Canadian Gen Z told First Onsite and Angus Reid they want to work for an organization focused on sustainability. The study in Personnel Review found this generation prioritizes social justice, and gravitates to employers whose values reflect their own.

That study found 43 per cent of Canadian Gen Z worry about job stability — the highest share of any generation. Here municipalities can offer something almost no private employer can: a traditional pension. Roughly 87 per cent of Canada’s public-sector workers are covered by a registered pension plan, against about 20 per cent in the private sector, according to Statistics Canada.

When it comes to benefits, it really is the thought that counts — and the most thoughtful perks are often the cheapest. Flexibility isn’t a selling point anymore so much as the standard; Mercer’s 2025 data shows more than four in five Canadian employers already offer hybrid options to new graduates. Municipalities can go a step further at no cost, by letting students pick a start times within a set window, which signals the trust and respect this generation prizes.

A handful of modest supports — call them micro-incentives — can make or break a job to this crowd. A transit subsidy, for example, shows real thought about a genuine expense in a student’s life. A single paid wellness day lands well with a generation that wants employers to genuinely care about mental health. And a small professional development stipend — even a few hundred dollars toward a course or conference — reads as an employer that invests in its people.

Mentorship might have the biggest ROI of all. Gen Z leans on mentors to build both hard and soft skills, and LinkedIn’s 2024 Workplace Learning Report ranks mentoring among employers’ fastest-rising learning priorities, led by younger workers. It costs nothing to pair a student with a supervisor who has the time and passion to teach, or to bring them along to networking and cross-team events.

None of this means outbidding the private sector, just painting the full picture from the first posting onward. The Arts and Science Co-op program at U of T Scarborough makes that easy.