Employment Insurance, July 2023
Released: 2023-09-21
The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits increased by 25,000 (+6.0%) to 438,000 in July. This was the third consecutive monthly increase and the largest increase since May 2021. From April to July 2023, the number of Canadians receiving regular EI benefits has increased by 10.5% (+42,000).
According to the Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate increased 0.1 percentage points to 5.5% in July, marking the third consecutive monthly increase.
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 increase for a third consecutive month in July
Increase in the number of people collecting regular Employment Insurance benefits in seven provinces
The number of regular EI beneficiaries increased in seven provinces in July, led by New Brunswick (+19.4%; +4,500), Manitoba (+14.9%; +2,000), Prince Edward Island (+13.9%; +900) and Quebec (+13.5%; +14,000). Meanwhile, the number of people collecting regular EI benefits fell in Ontario (-3.0%; -3,600) and was little changed in Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan.
In July, New Brunswick saw its first increase in the number of regular EI beneficiaries since a year earlier. Likewise, Prince Edward Island recorded its first increase since December 2022 and Nova Scotia recorded its first increase since January 2023. In these three provinces, the number of regular EI recipients had generally trended downwards over the past year, before increasing in July.
For a third consecutive month, the number of regular EI recipients increased in Quebec (+13.5%; +14,000) in July, bringing the cumulative increase since April to 30,000 regular EI beneficiaries.
Among census metropolitan areas (CMAs), the largest proportional increases in regular EI beneficiaries were in the CMAs of Moncton (+32.4%; +700), Trois-Rivières (+29.7%; +500) and Saint John (+29.4%; +600). Conversely, the largest proportional decreases in the number of beneficiaries were in the CMAs of Oshawa (-9.8%; -300) and Greater Sudbury (-6.3%; -500).
Chart 2
Regular Employment Insurance recipients rise in seven provinces in July
Increases in regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries in July concentrated among core-aged men aged 25 to 54 and women aged 55 and older
The number of people collecting regular EI benefits increased among both men (+5.4%; +14,000) and women (+6.9%; +10,000) in July. The number of male regular EI beneficiaries has steadily increased since April (+13.3%; +33,000). Among women, July saw the first monthly increase in the number of regular EI beneficiaries since February.
The number of core-aged (25 to 54 years) male regular EI beneficiaries increased by 6.0% (+9,800) in July, with a faster pace of growth in Manitoba, New Brunswick and Quebec, compared with the other provinces. This contributed to 68.0% of the monthly increase among men. The number of people collecting regular EI benefits rose by 6.4% (+1,900) among young men aged 15 to 24 years, while it increased by 3.8% (+2,700) among men aged 55 years and older.
In July, 67.4% of the monthly increase for women collecting regular EI benefits was among those aged 55 years and older (+17.3%; +7,000), with gains recorded in all provinces. The number of regular EI recipients rose among core-aged women (+2.9%; +2,800) and women aged 15 to 24 (+4.5%; +500).
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 July 9 to 15, 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 August will be released on October 19.
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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