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Employment Insurance, March 2021

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Released: 2021-05-20

March Employment Insurance (EI) statistics reflect labour market conditions as of the week of March 14 to 20.

Compared with the February reference week, public health measures were eased in most provinces as of the March reference week. Stay-at-home orders were lifted for all regions of Ontario by March 8, although personal care services, recreation and fitness facilities, and in-person dining remained closed in some areas, including Toronto. In Quebec, measures affecting restaurants, and recreation and entertainment facilities were eased in some regions in late February and early March, while Montréal and surrounding regions remained under the highest level of restrictions. Lockdown measures in Newfoundland and Labrador were partially eased on February 27 and again on March 11, although in-person dining remained closed in St. John's and the Avalon Peninsula. Various public health measures were also eased in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

Number of regular EI beneficiaries down in March

The number of Canadians receiving regular EI benefits fell 4.8% (-74,000) to 1.5 million in March. Results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) indicate that employment increased by 303,000 in March, while unemployment fell to 1.5 million, including 1.4 million people who were looking for work and 100,000 who had a connection to a job, because they either were on temporary layoff or had arrangements to begin a new job in the near future.

Chart 1  Chart 1: Regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries down in March
Regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries down in March

Almost one-quarter of regular EI beneficiaries received employment income during the reference week

In March, almost one-quarter (24.0%) of regular EI beneficiaries received employment income at some point during the reference week, compared with 12.4% 12 months earlier. Ontario (34.9%) had the highest proportion of regular EI recipients who received employment income during the reference week, while Saskatchewan had the lowest (5.9%). Changes in the proportion of regular EI recipients receiving employment income can be attributable to a number of factors, including changes in the number of people receiving EI while working reduced hours and rapid changes in the number of people transitioning into and out of employment as public health restrictions are tightened and eased.

Decrease in the number of regular EI beneficiaries concentrated in Ontario and Quebec

In March, the decrease in the number of regular EI beneficiaries was concentrated in Ontario (-62,000; -10.5%) and Quebec (-17,000; -4.7%), partly reflecting employment gains in both provinces as public health measures were eased, as reported in the March LFS release. At the same time, British Columbia (+8,000; +4.9%) and New Brunswick (+3,000; +6.0%) had the largest increases in the number of regular EI beneficiaries.

As with March LFS employment gains in Ontario, the decrease in the number of regular EI beneficiaries in March, which was concentrated in Ontario, was influenced in part by spring break for schools in that province being rescheduled to mid-April. This resulted in a disruption of seasonal patterns for workers in educational services.

Census metropolitan areas (CMAs) (-68,000; -6.4%) accounted for most of the monthly decrease in the number of regular EI recipients, particularly CMAs in Ontario (-56,000; -11.3%) and Quebec (-15,000; -5.8%). In the Toronto CMA, the number of regular EI recipients dropped by 35,000 (-12.8%), the first decline since new EI eligibility rules were introduced in late September. From February 2020 to March 2021, the number of regular EI beneficiaries rose by 1.0 million (+227.1%). CMAs accounted for more than three-quarters (76.6%) of this increase, with the largest CMAs—Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver—accounting for 40.2%.

Chart 2  Chart 2: The proportion of total regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries has increased in Canada's three largest census metropolitan areas during the pandemic
The proportion of total regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries has increased in Canada's three largest census metropolitan areas during the pandemic

Almost three-quarters of regular EI recipients last worked in the services-producing sector

In March, regular EI recipients who last worked in the services-producing sector accounted for 72.5% of total regular EI recipients, compared with 51.8% in February 2020, before the pandemic (not seasonally adjusted). The higher proportion of regular EI beneficiaries observed in the services-producing sector was driven by increases in the proportion of regular EI recipients who last worked in accommodation and food services (+10.9 percentage points) and retail trade (+4.4 percentage points), industries that have been hard hit by public health measures (not seasonally adjusted). According to March LFS results, employment in both accommodation and food services (-24.4%) and retail trade (-1.2%) remained below pre-COVID-19 levels.

Chart 3  Chart 3: Services-producing industries most impacted by public health measures (not seasonally adjusted)
Services-producing industries most impacted by public health measures (not seasonally adjusted)

Bigger drop in regular EI beneficiaries among women than men

In March, the number of core-aged (25 to 54 years) women receiving regular EI benefits fell by 40,000 (-9.0%), almost twice the decrease among core-aged men (-22,000; -4.7%). Core-aged women in Ontario accounted for almost two-thirds (62.7%) of the total monthly decline.

Female youth aged 15 to 24 years (+3,000; +3.2%) were the only age group to show a monthly increase in the number of regular EI beneficiaries in March. The labour market challenges faced by female youth are further reflected in the March LFS results, which indicate that employment among young women remained further from pre-pandemic levels than that among all other demographic groups.

Long-term unemployment reflected in EI benefits

As the labour market continues to adjust to the challenges posed by COVID-19, the ability of workers to find their way back to employment after a long period of joblessness will be crucial. March EI results show that 40.9% of regular EI recipients had received regular EI benefits or the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) in at least 10 of the previous 12 months, up from 1.2% in February 2020, before the pandemic (not seasonally adjusted). In March, almost half (48.9%) of regular EI recipients in British Columbia had received regular EI benefits or the CERB in at least 10 of the previous 12 months, compared with one in five (20.6%) in Prince Edward Island (not seasonally adjusted). This builds on the March LFS data, which showed that 30.7% of all unemployed people had been continuously out of work for 27 weeks or more, compared with 15.6% before the pandemic in February 2020.

Next release

April EI results will reflect the impacts on people receiving regular EI benefits of the tightened public health measures introduced in many regions in the weeks following the March reference week.



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 the reporting on the 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 were made to the Employment Insurance Statistics (EIS) program over the COVID-19 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 consist of 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. Values for all series from March 2020 to March 2021 have been treated as outliers in the determination of 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 March 14 to 20. This period coincides with the reference week of the LFS.

Beneficiaries who qualified for EI under the new EI rules introduced in September 2020

Temporary changes to the EI program that provided all new regular EI beneficiaries with a one-time credit of 300 insurable hours were introduced on September 27, 2020. In addition, the unemployment rate used to calculate their eligibility and entitlement weeks was 13.1%, unless their region's unemployment rate was higher.

This supplementary indicator presents the number of individuals who qualified for EI only as a result of these program changes.

EI beneficiaries by industry

The industry of EI beneficiaries is determined through the integration of EI and record of employment administrative data. For beneficiaries with more than one record of employment in the past 52 weeks, 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.

EI beneficiaries by number of months on EI or Canada Emergency Response Benefit over the previous year

This supplementary indicator presents the number of regular EI recipients who received either regular EI benefits or the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) for a defined number of total months over the previous 12 months.

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

Data tables 14-10-0336 and 14-10-0337 remain suspended as of the December 2019 reference period, because of occupational coding issues from the source data file. Work is ongoing to identify a solution and continue publication of the tables.

Data tables 14-10-0004, 14-10-0005, 14-10-0007 and 14-10-0008 remain suspended as of the March 2020 reference period, because a source data file contains records for CERB claimants and beneficiaries that could not be identified and excluded through processing.

In the data table 14-10-0009, for the March to September reference periods, sub-aggregates of the parent "regular benefits" benefit type have been suppressed because of data quality.

Next release

Data on EI for April 2021 will be released on June 17, 2021.

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; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).

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