Employment Insurance, June 2023
Released: 2023-08-17
In June, 410,000 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, up 7,300 (+1.8%) from a month earlier. Quebec (+8,800), Alberta (+1,200) and Saskatchewan (+300) accounted for all of the national net monthly increase. Despite successive increases in May and June, the number of regular EI beneficiaries in June remained far below levels seen in June 2022 (-17.8%; -89,000).
According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the unemployment rate in Canada rose to 5.4% (+0.2 percentage points) in June 2023, bringing it to its highest level since February 2022 (when it was also 5.4%).
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
Upward trend in the number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries continues in June
More people collecting regular Employment Insurance benefits in Quebec
The largest proportional increase in EI beneficiaries occurred in Quebec (+9.4%; +8,800) in June, for a second consecutive month. The increase in regular EI recipients was spread across the province, but the census metropolitan areas (CMAs) of Trois-Rivières (+9.9%; +200) and Montréal (+8.1%; +3,000) were the CMAs where the largest proportional increases were observed.
The number of EI beneficiaries was also up in Alberta (+2.8%; +1,200) and Saskatchewan (+2.3%; +300). The CMA of Edmonton (+16.8%; +2,300) posted the largest proportional increase in regular EI beneficiaries among all CMAs in June, accounting for the entire net increase in Alberta.
In contrast, Newfoundland and Labrador posted the largest proportional decrease (-4.7%; -1,400) in the month, followed by Nova Scotia (-1.4%; -300) and Ontario (-1.3%; -1,500).
There was little change in the number of people receiving regular EI benefits in British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
Increase in regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries concentrated among men
The number of men receiving regular EI benefits continued to increase across all age groups in June. From May to June, the largest proportional increase was seen among core-aged men aged 25 to 54 (+6.3%; +9,700), followed by men aged 55 years and older (+3.8%; +2,700), and male youth aged 15 to 24 years (+2.2%; +600). Men accounted for the majority of EI beneficiaries in June (64.9%), up 6.3 percentage points compared with 12 months earlier. The proportion of men receiving regular EI benefits in June exceeded its pre-COVID-19 pandemic average of 62.2% in the month of June from 2017 to 2019.
The number of women receiving regular EI benefits decreased in June 2023 by 3.8% (-5,700), following little change a month earlier. Core-aged women aged 25 to 54 had the largest proportional decrease in the number of EI beneficiaries (-3.9%; -3,800) in June, fully offsetting cumulative increases of 1,400 from January to May in this age group. The number of women aged 55 years and older receiving regular EI benefits fell by 1,600 (-3.8%) in June. In addition, fewer young women aged 15 to 24 (-3.4%; -400) collected regular EI benefits in June, the first monthly decline since February.
Infographic 1
Proportion of men collecting regular Employment Insurance benefits exceeded its pre-pandemic level in June
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 June 11 to 17, 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 July will be released on September 21.
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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