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An estimated 462,500 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in April, down 1,090 from March. Most of the provinces showed relatively little change in April, with the exception of Saskatchewan (-4.6%). Regular benefit payments in April totalled $689.2 million.
Compared with April 2007, the number of Canadians receiving regular benefits has declined 3.6%. Provincially, the largest year-over-year declines in regular beneficiaries occurred in Saskatchewan (-16.0%), Nova Scotia (-7.7%) and Quebec (-6.9%).
Over the last year, the number of regular beneficiaries has decreased in most of the census metropolitan areas (CMA), most notably in Saskatoon, where regular EI beneficiaries have fallen by 33.5% and in Regina (-22.2%). The number of regular beneficiaries increased in a handful of CMAs, including Oshawa, where it almost doubled (+98.4%), St. Catharines–Niagara (+17.4%) and London (+13.4%).
The number of Canadians receiving regular benefits declined for both men (-3.7%) and women (-4.7%) compared with April 2007.
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 is a measure of all persons who received Employment Insurance benefits from the 13th to the 19th 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 during the month.
Available on CANSIM: tables 276-0001 to 276-0006, 276-0009, 276-0011, 276-0015 and 276-0016.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2604.
Data on Employment Insurance for May will be released on July 22.
For general information or to order data, contact Client Services (613-951-4090; call toll free 1-866-873-8788; labour@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Gilles Groleau (613-951-4091), Labour Statistics Division.
Table(s).
