Employment Insurance, May 2023
Released: 2023-07-20
The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits rose by 9,800 (+2.5%) to 399,000 in May, the first increase since July 2022. This was driven by increases in Quebec (+10.2%) and British Columbia (+6.1%). Meanwhile, the number of regular EI beneficiaries fell in the four Atlantic provinces.
According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the unemployment rate in Canada rose 0.2 percentage points to 5.2% in May 2023, the first increase since August 2022.
On a year-over-year basis, the number of people collecting regular EI benefits was down by 21.3% (-108,000) in May 2023, primarily due to declines from July to November 2022. From November 2022 to April 2023, the number of regular EI recipients had remained at or near record lows (outside of the period when the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit was in place from March to September 2020).
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
Regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries up in May
The number of regular Employment Insurance recipients increases in Quebec and British Columbia
In Quebec, 94,000 people received regular EI benefits in May, up 10.2% (+8,800) from April. This was the first increase since July 2022, and was concentrated among men (+13.6%; +7,600). The census metropolitan areas (CMAs) of Québec (+36.7%; +1,900) and Montréal (+13.2%; +4,300) posted the largest proportional increases in regular EI recipients of all CMAs in the country. The LFS reported that the unemployment rate in the province of Quebec was 4.0% in May 2023, just above the province's record low of 3.9%.
The number of regular EI beneficiaries in British Columbia rose 6.1% (+2,200) to 39,000 in May, partially offsetting the decrease in April (-9.0%; -3,600). On a year-over-year basis, the number of people receiving regular EI benefits declined by 11.2% (-4,900) in British Columbia in May.
The number of people collecting regular EI benefits fell in each of the four Atlantic provinces in May. Prince Edward Island recorded the largest proportional decline (-8.2%; -500), continuing a downward trend that began in January. Likewise, the number of regular EI beneficiaries in New Brunswick fell to 23,000 in May (-2.6%; -600), the 10th consecutive monthly decrease for the province. The number of regular EI beneficiaries also declined in Newfoundland and Labrador (-1.9%; -600) and in Nova Scotia (-1.8%; -400).
There was little change in the number of regular EI beneficiaries in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta in May.
Chart 2
Regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries down across Atlantic provinces since May 2022
More men collect regular Employment Insurance benefits in May
The number of men receiving regular EI benefits increased by 4.4% (+11,000) in May, accounting for the entire monthly increase. While there was little change overall in the number of women receiving regular EI benefits, there was a slight decrease among women aged 55 years and older (-1.1%; -500).
In May, more young men aged 15 to 24 years (+18.7%; +4,500) collected regular EI benefits compared with April, contributing to over two-fifths (46.1%) of the overall monthly increase. This was the first significant monthly increase in the number of male youth collecting regular EI benefits since May 2022. Likewise, the number of male regular EI beneficiaries aged 25 to 54 years increased by 3.4% (+5,000) in May 2023, the second increase for this group in three months. Among men aged 55 years and older, the number of beneficiaries increased by 1.5% (+1,100) in May, the first increase since July 2022.
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 (EIS) data to conform to the 2021 National Occupational Classification (NOC) standard. This will result in EIS 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 May 14 to 20, 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 June will be released on August 17.
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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