Employment Insurance, September 2024
Released: 2024-11-21
The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits declined by 9,600 (-1.9%) in September. This followed little change in August. The number of EI recipients had been trending up from April 2024 to July 2024.
On a year-over-year basis, the number of regular EI beneficiaries was up by 23,000 (+4.9%) in September.
Data from the Labour Force Survey show that, in September, employment rose by 47,000 (+0.2%), while the unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 6.5%. Compared with September 2023, the unemployment rate was up 0.9 percentage points, and the number of unemployed people who had been laid off increased to 463,000 (+4.5%; +20,000) (not seasonally adjusted).
In general, variations in the number of EI 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
Number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries declines in September
The number of regular Employment Insurance recipients decreases in September among women and men in all broad age groups
The number of regular EI recipients fell among women and men in all major age groups in September. Among women, the largest decline was recorded among core-age (25 to 54 years) women (-3.9%; -4,600). Among men, the number of EI recipients fell by similar proportions among core-age men (-1.3%; -2,500), men aged 55 years and older (-1.3%; -1,100) and young men (-1.3%; -500).
Fewer regular Employment Insurance recipients in all provinces in September
The number of regular EI beneficiaries declined in all provinces in September. Quebec (-3.6%; -4,200) posted the largest proportional decrease and accounted for 43.6% of the monthly decline at the national level. The decrease in the province was most pronounced among core-aged men (-4.1%; -1,900) and men and women aged 55 years and older (-3.5%; -1,300). On a year-over-year basis, the number of regular EI beneficiaries in Quebec was up 4.1% (+4,400).
Chart 2
Quebec has the largest proportional decrease in regular Employment Insurance recipients in September
The number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries down in almost all major occupational groups in September
In September, the number of regular EI beneficiaries decreased among all broad occupational groups, except for legislative and senior management occupations, where it was essentially unchanged. The largest decrease from August to September was among people who last worked in trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations (-3,700; -2.2%), followed by education, law, and social, community and government services occupations (-1,600; -3.2%).
Despite the broad-based decreases from August to September, the number of regular EI recipients was up from September 2023 in 8 of the 10 major occupation groups. The largest proportional increase was among EI beneficiaries who last worked in manufacturing and utilities (+17.3%; +6,100), an increase observed in Ontario.
From August to September 2024, there were also more regular EI recipients who last worked in natural and applied sciences and related occupations (+15.9% +4,700) and sales and service occupations (+7,100; +9.6%).
In contrast, the number of regular EI recipients was down on a year-over-year basis in art, culture, recreation and sport occupations (-28.4%; -4,500).
Chart 3
Largest 12-month increase in regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries among people who last worked in manufacturing and utilities, followed by natural and applied sciences
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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
Concepts and methodology
Employment Insurance (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 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 December 2022 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 September 15 to 21, 2024. 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 (SGC) 2021 for more information.
Next release
Data on EI for October will be released on December 18.
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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