Employment Insurance, April 2025
Released: 2025-06-19
The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits increased by 17,000 (+3.4%) to 520,000 in April. This followed an increase of 3.1% in February and little change in March. Compared with 12 months earlier, the number of regular EI beneficiaries was up by 58,000 (+12.7%) in April.
Data from the Labour Force Survey indicate that the unemployment rate was up 0.7 percentage points year over year to 6.9% in April.
In general, variations in the number of EI beneficiaries receiving regular benefits can reflect changes in the circumstances of different groups of people, including new beneficiaries, individuals 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 first four months of the year
The number of regular Employment Insurance recipients up among all major demographic groups
There were more EI recipients with regular benefits across all major demographic groups in April. Core-aged (25-to-54 years old) men (+6,500; +3.3%) and core-aged women (+6,100; +5.0%) recorded the largest increases. The number of recipients was also up among women aged 55 years and older (+1,600; +3.1%) and men of the same age group (+1,500; +1.8%), as well as among young (15-to-24 years old) men (+1,000; +2.9%) and women (+400; +3.1%).
Compared with one year earlier, there were also widespread increases in the number of people receiving regular EI benefits. The largest increases were among core-aged men (+28,000; +15.8%) and core-aged women (+14,000; +11.6%).
More regular Employment Insurance recipients in six provinces
Among the provinces, the largest proportional increases in the number of recipients receiving regular EI benefits in April were in Quebec (+5.5%; +6,100), British Columbia (+5.2%; +2,600) and Ontario (+4.3%; +7,200). Together, these three provinces accounted for the vast majority (92.8%) of the monthly national increase.
In Quebec, the increase in the Montréal census metropolitan area (CMA) (+5.5%; +2,700) was proportionally similar to that for the province as a whole. In British Columbia, the number of beneficiaries rose at a faster rate in the Vancouver CMA (+6.6%; +1,600) compared with the province as a whole.
The imposition of tariffs on exports of motor vehicles and parts have had significant labour market impacts, particularly in regions of Southern Ontario where employment in automotive manufacturing is concentrated. In the Windsor CMA, the number of recipients receiving regular EI benefits nearly doubled (+5,100; +91.7%) to reach 10,600 people in April, accounting for 70.6% of the increase in Ontario. In the Toronto CMA, the number of EI recipients increased 1,300 (+1.9%) in April.
Smaller proportional increases were recorded in Nova Scotia (+2.4%; +500), Alberta (+2.2%; +1,300) and Manitoba (+1.4%; +200) in April.
On a year-over-year basis, Ontario (+19.0%; +28,000) recorded the largest proportional increase among all provinces in April, followed by Alberta (+15.8%; +8,100), British Columbia (+13.9%; +6,500) and Quebec (+11.6%; +12,000).
Chart 2
Quebec, British Columbia and Ontario post the largest proportional increases in regular Employment Insurance recipients in April
The largest increase in the number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries in April is among recipients who last worked in business, finance and administration occupations
In April, the number of beneficiaries receiving regular EI benefits increased the most among recipients who were last employed in business, finance and administration occupations (+5,300; +8.5%), followed by those last employed in trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations (+3,400; +2.0%). Increases were also recorded among recipients who were last employed in manufacturing and utilities (+3,100; +8.1%), mostly in Ontario. At the national level, the number of EI recipients also increased in sales and service occupations (+2,800; +3.4%).
Compared with April 2024, the number of regular EI recipients was up across all major occupational groups in April 2025. Increases were most pronounced for beneficiaries who were last employed in trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations (+20,000; +12.7%) and business, finance and administration occupations (+10,600; +18.7%).
Chart 3
In April, the number of regular Employment Insurance recipients increases in all occupations year over year, led by those who last worked in trades, transport and equipment operators and related 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 April 13 to 19. 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 Temporary Employment Insurance measures to respond to major changes in economic conditions.
Next release
Data on EI for May will be released on July 24.
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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