Employment Insurance, April 2023
Released: 2023-06-22
In April, 384,000 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, little changed from 386,000 in March. Since November 2022, the number of regular EI beneficiaries has varied little, remaining at or near record lows (outside of the period when the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit was in place from March to September 2020).
According to the Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate held steady at 5.0% in April 2023, unchanged since December 2022.
In general, variations in the number of beneficiaries can 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
The number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries was little changed in April
The number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries decreases in five provinces
In April, the number of regular EI recipients decreased in five provinces. The largest proportional decline was in New Brunswick (-3.8%; -1,000), continuing its downward trend that started in August 2022.
The number of regular EI beneficiaries also fell in Nova Scotia (-3.4%; -700), Manitoba (-3.0%; -400), Ontario (-2.8%; -3,200) and Alberta (-2.5%; -1,000) in April 2023. In contrast, the number of regular EI recipients increased in Saskatchewan (+8.9%; +1,100), Newfoundland and Labrador (+7.2%; +2,100) and British Columbia (+1.3%; +500). There was little change in the number of regular EI beneficiaries in Quebec and Prince Edward Island.
The Windsor (-41.7%; -3,200) census metropolitan area (CMA) posted the largest proportional decrease in regular EI recipients in April, mostly offsetting the increase of 4,200 recipients in February. Meanwhile, the largest proportional increases in April were in the Saskatoon (+20.2%; +500) and St. John's (+15.2%; +500) CMAs.
Chart 2
Declines in regular Employment Insurance recipients in five provinces
Fewer core-aged men collected regular Employment Insurance benefits in April
The number of men receiving regular EI benefits decreased by 3,000 (-1.3%) in April, reflecting declines among men aged 25 to 54 years (-3.2%; -4,600). This was the fourth consecutive monthly decrease in the number of men collecting regular EI benefits, continuing a downward trend that began in August 2022. At the same time, the number of men aged 55 years and older receiving regular EI benefits rose 1.7% (+1,200) in April 2023, the first increase since July 2022.
In April 2023, there was little change in the number of core-aged women or women aged 55 years and older receiving regular EI benefits. The largest increases in the number of women receiving regular EI benefits were in Saskatchewan (+28.7%; +1,200) and Newfoundland and Labrador (+11.1%; +1,400), but these were offset by declines in several other provinces.
The number of young people aged 15 to 24 years receiving regular EI benefits rose 3.0% (+1,000) in April, the first increase since May 2021. This increase was notable among both young women (+5.7%; +600) and young men (+1.8%; +400).
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
Availability of data by occupation
Statistics Canada is currently revising the Employment Insurance Statistics data to conform to the 2021 National Occupational Classification (NOC) standard. This will result in Employment Insurance Statistics occupation categories aligning with the 2021 Census of Population and Labour Force Survey NOC 2021 categories. The release of revised data is planned for later this year. Until then, information on Employment Insurance (EI) beneficiaries by occupation, including tables 14-10-0336-01 and 14-10-0337-01, will not be available.
Concepts and methodology
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 Labour Force Survey (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 to determine 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 all people who received regular EI benefits from April 9 to 15, 2023. This period coincides with the reference week of the LFS.
A census metropolitan area (CMA) and a census agglomeration (CA) are 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.
Next release
Data on EI for May will be released on July 20.
Products
More information about the concepts and use of Employment Insurance statistics is available in the Guide to Employment Insurance Statistics (73-506-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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