The Daily, Tuesday, March 28, 2006. Employment Insurance

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Employment Insurance

January 2006 (preliminary)

Previous release

The estimated number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance benefits (seasonally adjusted) rose for the first time since August 2005. The level in January was 499,710, up 1.2% from December but still 4.8% lower than a year earlier.

All provinces east of Manitoba posted increases in January, with the largest occurring in New Brunswick (+2.9%) and Nova Scotia (+2.9%). The number of regular beneficiaries rose by 2.3% in Ontario while remaining virtually unchanged in Quebec (+0.2%).

Regular benefit payments in January totalled $685.4 million, while the number of people making initial and renewal claims was 231,350.

Note: Employment Insurance Statistics Program data are produced from an administrative data source and may, from time to time, be affected by changes to the Employment Insurance Act or administrative procedures. The number of beneficiaries for this month is a measure of all persons who received Employment Insurance benefits from the 15th to the 21st of the month. This coincides with the reference week of the Labour Force Survey. The regular benefit payments figure measures the total of all monies paid to individuals from the 1st to the end of the month.

Employment Insurance statistics

Jan. 2006

Dec. 2005

Jan. 2005

Dec. 2005 to Jan. 2006

Jan. 2005 to Jan. 2006

seasonally adjusted

% change

Regular beneficiaries

499,710^p

493,700^r

525,180

1.2

-4.8

Regular benefits paid ($ millions)

685.4^p

687.7^r

720.7

-0.3

-4.9

Initial and renewal claims received ('000)

231.4^p

236.0^r

238.6

-2.0

-3.1

unadjusted

All beneficiaries ('000)¹

946.3^p

812.7^p

980.4

Regular beneficiaries ('000)

649.3^p

513.8^p

683.1

Initial and renewal claims received ('000)

330.8

307.0

330.1

Payments ($ millions)

1,619.3

1,153.6

1,616.3

year-to-date (Jan. to Jan.)

2006

2005

2005 to 2006

% change

Claims received ('000)

330.8

330.1

0.2

Payments ($ millions)

1,619.3

1,616.3

0.2

^r	Revised.
^p	Preliminary.
1.	"All beneficiaries" includes all claimants receiving regular benefits (for example, as a result of layoff) or special benefits (for example, as a result of illness) and are representative of data for the Labour Force Survey reference week which is usually the week containing the fifteenth day of the month.

Number of beneficiaries receiving regular benefits

Jan. 2006^p

Dec. 2005 to Jan. 2006

Jan. 2005 to Jan. 2006

seasonally adjusted

% change

Canada

499,710

1.2

-4.8

Newfoundland and Labrador

38,260

1.3

2.4

Prince Edward Island

7,770

2.1

-1.9

Nova Scotia

28,970

2.9

-3.1

New Brunswick

32,480

2.9

-5.3

Quebec

173,880

0.2

-1.5

Ontario

130,910

2.3

0.4

Manitoba

11,170

-1.8

-10.4

Saskatchewan

9,670

-0.9

-17.1

Alberta

18,930

-1.8

-27.8

British Columbia

44,840

-1.6

-19.7

Yukon

890

1.1

0.0

Northwest Territories

770

-1.3

14.9

Nunavut

420

2.4

7.7

^p	Preliminary.
Note:	The number of beneficiaries includes all claimants who received regular benefits for the Labour Force Survey reference week, usually containing the fifteenth day of the month.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2604.

Data on Employment Insurance for February will be released on April 26.

For general information or to order data, contact Client Services (613-951-4090; 1-866-873-8788; labour@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Jacques Ouellet (613-951-4168), Labour Statistics Division.