Employment Insurance, March 2025
Released: 2025-05-22
The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits held steady (+0.3%; +1,400) in March at 497,000, following an increase in February (+1.9%; +9,000). Compared with March 2024, the number of regular EI beneficiaries was up by 28,000 (+6.0%) in March 2025.
Data from the Labour Force Survey indicate that the unemployment rate was up 0.6 percentage points year over year to 6.7% in March.
In general, variations in the number of EI beneficiaries receiving regular benefits can reflect changes in the circumstances of different groups of people, 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 up over the 12 months ending in March
The number of regular Employment Insurance recipients up slightly among youth in March
In March, the number of EI recipients receiving regular benefits edged up among youth aged 15 to 24 years (+800; +1.8%), bringing the cumulative increase over the past three months to 2,300 (+5.1%) for this group. There was little change in March in the number of core-aged (25 to 54 years old) regular EI recipients and those aged 55 and older.
Compared with a year earlier, increases in the number of people receiving regular EI benefits were largest among core-aged men (+14,000; +7.7%) and core-aged women (+6,300; +5.5%). There were smaller increases among men (+3,900; +4.9%) and women (+3,100; +6.6%) aged 55 years and older. The number of young men who received regular EI benefits was up by 1,000 (+2.9%) compared with March 2024 and held steady for young women.
The number of regular Employment Insurance recipients edges up in Alberta and Ontario in March
In March, the number of beneficiaries receiving regular EI benefits rose slightly in Alberta (+1.7%; +1,000), following an increase (+3.4%; +1,900) in February. The increase in March was among core-aged men and women (+1.6%; +600).
Ontario also recorded a slight increase in March (+1.1%; +1,800), mainly among core-aged women.
The number of recipients receiving regular EI benefits edged down in New Brunswick (-1.1%; -300) and Saskatchewan (-1.3%; -200). There was little change in March in all other provinces.
On a year-over-year basis, Ontario (+19,000; +12.8%) recorded the largest proportional increase among all provinces, continuing a year-over-year trend that began in December 2023. The year-over-year increase in March 2025 was mostly among core-aged men (+10,000; +17.9%) and core-aged women (+3,600; +8.8%). In the Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA), the number of beneficiaries receiving regular benefits was up by 8,000 (+13.0%) and in the Hamilton CMA, the number of EI recipients was up by 1,800 (+25.6%). In the Windsor CMA, there were 800 (+16.8%) more regular EI beneficiaries receiving regular benefits.
In Alberta, the number of regular EI beneficiaries increased by 4,400 (+8.2%) compared with March 2024, with most of the increase coming from core-aged women (+1,400; +10.6%) and core-aged men (+1,300; +5.6%).
Quebec recorded a year-over-year increase of 3,400 (+3.2%) in March 2025, with core-aged men accounting for just over one-half (51.6%) of the overall provincial increase in the number of regular EI beneficiaries. The Montréal CMA posted an increase of 4,800 (+11.0%) EI recipients receiving regular benefits.
In British Columbia, there were 2,300 (+4.8%) more recipients receiving regular EI benefits in March compared with 12 months earlier, with the largest increase among core-aged women (+1,000; +7.6%).
Chart 2
Alberta and Ontario post the largest proportional increases in regular Employment Insurance recipients in March
The largest year-over-year increase in the number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries was among recipients who last worked in business, finance and administration occupations
In March, slight increases in the number of recipients who last worked in natural resources, agriculture and related production occupations (+800; +2.8%); manufacturing and utilities (+700; +1.9%); as well as natural and applied sciences and related occupations (+500; +1.3%) offset a decrease among recipients who last worked in trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations (-2,000; -1.2%).
Compared with March 2024, the number of regular EI recipients was up across nearly all major occupational groups in March 2025. Increases were largest for beneficiaries who were last employed in business, finance and administration occupations (+6,000; +10.8%), followed by trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations (+4,700; +2.9%), natural and applied sciences and related occupations (+4,400; +13.1%), and sales and service occupations (+4,300; +5.7%).
Chart 3
In March, the number of regular Employment Insurance recipients up in several occupations on a year-over-year basis, led by those who last worked in business, finance and administration occupations
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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 (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 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 March 9 to 15. 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.
Temporary changes to the Employment Insurance program were recently announced. For more information, see the page Temporary Employment Insurance measures to respond to major changes in economic conditions.
Next release
Data on EI for April will be released on June 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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