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Employment Insurance, October 2022

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Released: 2022-12-15

In October, 438,000 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, down by 15,000 (-3.2%) from September. This was the first month in which the number of regular EI beneficiaries was below the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level of February 2020 (-2.2%; -10,000), outside of the period (March to September) when the Canada Emergency Response Benefit program was in place. On a year-over-year basis, the number of people collecting regular EI benefits fell by 42.4% (-322,000) compared with October 2021.

According to the Labour Force Survey, in October 2022, the unemployment rate held steady at 5.2% after declining in September.

Changes to the EI program were introduced on September 25, 2022, including a return to using regional unemployment rates to calculate the number of insured hours required to qualify for regular benefits. Variations in the number of EI beneficiaries can also reflect changes in the circumstances of different groups, including those becoming beneficiaries, those going back to work, those exhausting their regular benefits, and those no longer receiving benefits for other reasons.

Chart 1  Chart 1: Fewer regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries in October
Fewer regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries in October

Fewer people collect regular Employment Insurance benefits in all provinces

The number of people receiving regular EI benefits fell in every province in October, following similar widespread declines across the country in September. For a second consecutive month, the largest proportional decrease occurred in New Brunswick, with the number of beneficiaries down 9.1% (-2,500) in October. British Columbia (-1.4%; -600) and Saskatchewan (-1.7%; -300) posted the smallest declines.

On a regional basis, the census metropolitan areas (CMAs) of Abbotsford–Mission (-16.3%; -300) and London (-13.8%; -800), as well as small population centres and rural areas in New Brunswick (-12.8%; -2,200) posted the largest proportional decreases in regular EI beneficiaries in October.

The number of regular Employment Insurance recipients fell across all age groups

For a third consecutive month, fewer men and women in all age groups collected regular EI benefits in October.

The largest proportional decrease in regular EI beneficiaries in October was among women aged 55 years and older (-10.6%; -5,200) who accounted for 35.6% of the total monthly decrease. The smallest proportional decline in regular EI beneficiaries was among men aged 25 to 54 years (-1.2%; -2,100), who accounted for 14.3% of the monthly decrease. In comparison, core-aged men (25 to 54 years) accounted for 37.7% of all regular EI recipients in the month.

Chart 2  Chart 2: Fewer people in all age groups collected regular Employment Insurance benefits in October
Fewer people in all age groups collected regular Employment Insurance benefits in October

Regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries fall in 8 of 10 broad occupational groups

The number of regular EI recipients declined in 8 of the 10 broad occupational groups in October. The largest decrease occurred among those who last worked in occupations in manufacturing and utilities (-13.3%; -5,700), more than offsetting an increase in September. Within this broader occupational group, assemblers in manufacturing (-34.6%; -4,800) accounted for most of the October decrease.

In October, there was also a noticeable decline in EI regular beneficiaries who last worked in sales and service occupations (-3.3%; -2,200), occupations in education, law and social, community and government services (-3.1%; -1,700) and business, finance and administration occupations (-3.4%; -1,500).

The number of people receiving regular EI benefits increased in occupations in art, culture, recreation and sport (+3.2%; +300), while there was little change in trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations.





Sustainable Development Goals

On January 1, 2016, the world officially began implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—the United Nations' transformative plan of action that addresses urgent global challenges over the following 15 years. The plan is based on 17 specific sustainable development goals.

Employment Insurance statistics are an example of how Statistics Canada supports reporting on global sustainable development goals. This release will be used to help measure the following goal:

  Note to readers

Employment Insurance in the context of broader COVID-19 benefit programs

No methodological changes have been made to the Employment Insurance Statistics (EIS) program over the COVID-19 pandemic period. EIS reflect the Employment Insurance (EI) program for the Labour Force Survey (LFS) reference week in each month.

Data for the October 2020 reference period and onward comprise individuals who obtained EI benefits and exclude beneficiaries of the Canada recovery benefits (Canada Recovery Benefit, Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit, and Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit).

Concepts and methodology

The analysis focuses on people who received regular EI benefits related to job loss.

EI statistics are produced from administrative data sources provided by Service Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada. These statistics may, from time to time, be affected by changes to the Employment Insurance Act or administrative procedures.

EI statistics indicate the number of people who received EI benefits and should not be confused with LFS data, which provide estimates of the total number of unemployed people. There is always a certain proportion of unemployed people who do not qualify for benefits. Some unemployed people have not contributed to the program because they have not worked in the past 12 months or their employment was not insured. Other unemployed people have contributed to the program, but do not meet the eligibility criteria, such as workers who left their jobs voluntarily or those who did not accumulate enough hours of work to receive benefits.

All data in this release are seasonally adjusted, unless otherwise specified. To model the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, values for all series from March 2020 to November 2021 have been treated with a combination of level shifts and outliers in determining a seasonal pattern for seasonal adjustment. For more information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.

The number of regular EI beneficiaries for the current month and the previous month is subject to revision.

The number of beneficiaries is a measure of all people who received regular EI benefits from October 9 to 15, 2022. This period coincides with the reference week of the LFS.

Employment Insurance beneficiaries by industry

The industry of EI beneficiaries is determined by integrating EI data with record of employment administrative data. For beneficiaries with more than one record of employment in the 52 weeks prior to the reference week, the records with the greatest number of hours are used. If no industry information can be found, industry information is deemed "Not classified" for the beneficiary.

A census metropolitan area (CMA) or census agglomeration (CA) is formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centred on a population centre. A CMA must have a total population of at least 100,000. A CA must have a population of at least 10,000. See Standard Geographical Classification 2016 – Definitions for more information.

Data availability

In the data tables 14-10-0004, 14-10-0005, 14-10-0007 and 14-10-0008, for the March to September 2020 reference periods, data have been suppressed because a source data file contains records for Canada Emergency Response Benefit claimants and beneficiaries who could not be identified and excluded through processing.

Next release

Data on EI for November will be released on January 20, 2023.

Products

More information about the concepts and use of Employment Insurance statistics is available in the Guide to Employment Insurance Statistics (Catalogue number73-506-G).

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).

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