Abstract: Exploiting social capital heterogeneity within Italy, I find that in low social capital areas the probability of using different forms of family help in the labor market is higher. In particular, people use more often relatives' referrals as their job finding method. The impact of social capital is stronger where legal enforcement is weaker and levels of education lower. I also find that in low social capital areas the probability of using social help in the labor market provided by someone outside the family is lower. This suggests that the main finding does not stem from unobserved geographical heterogeneity in labor market institutions. To further explore the causal nature of these results, the so-called epidemiological approach is applied: controlling for geographical fixed effects, the likelihood of using different forms of social help is also affected by the level of social capital of the province of residence before university attendance.