Employment Insurance, May 2025
Released: 2025-07-24
The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits was virtually unchanged (-0.3%; -1,600) at 517,000 in May. The number of beneficiaries had previously trended up (+6.6%; +32,000) from January to April. On a year-over-year basis, the number of regular EI beneficiaries was up by 44,000 (+9.2%) in May.
Data from the Labour Force Survey indicate that the unemployment rate was up 0.7 percentage points year over year to 7.0% in May.
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 others who no longer receive benefits for other reasons.
Chart 1
Number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries holds steady in May but up over the first four months of the year
The number of regular Employment Insurance recipients down among youth and core-aged men, while it is up among older women
In May, slight declines in the number of regular EI recipients were recorded among young men and women aged 15 to 24 (-1.7%; -800), as well as among core-aged (25 to 54 years old) men (-1.3%; -2,600). At the same time, there was an increase among women aged 55 and older (+1.9%; +1,000).
Compared with a year earlier, there were increases across all major demographic groups in May, with the largest proportional increases recorded among core-aged men (+10.8%; +19,000), older women (+10.3%; +5,000) and core-aged women (+9.2%; +11,000).
Fewer recipients with regular Employment Insurance benefits in Ontario, while Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador as well as Prince Edward Island post increases
Ontario was the lone province to record a notable decrease (-1.5%; -2,600) in its number of regular EI recipients in May, which partly offset the increase of 5,900 (+3.6%) in April.
On the other hand, after two months of little change, Saskatchewan (+1.7%; +300) recorded an increase in the number of recipients receiving regular EI benefits in May. Newfoundland and Labrador (+1.3%; +400) and Prince Edward Island (+1.5%; +100) also recorded increases in the month.
On a year-over-year basis, Alberta (+15.5% +7,900) recorded the largest proportional increase among all provinces in May, followed by British Columbia (+13.5%; +6,400), Ontario (+12.9%; +19,000), and Quebec (+5.8%; +6,400).
Chart 2
Ontario posts the largest proportional decrease in regular Employment Insurance recipients in May, while Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador post increases
The largest increase in the number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries in May is among recipients who last worked in business, finance and administrative occupations
In May, the number of beneficiaries receiving regular EI benefits increased the most among recipients who were last employed in business, finance and administration occupations (+2,200; +3.3%), marking the second consecutive monthly increase. Among those who last worked in sales and service occupations (+1,800; +2.1%), May marked the fourth consecutive monthly increase.
In contrast, there was a decline among recipients who last worked in occupations in manufacturing and utilities (-3,100; -7.5%), partly offsetting consecutive monthly increases totalling 5,400 (+14.8%) from January to April 2025.
Compared with May 2024, the number of regular EI recipients was up across most major occupational groups in May. Increases were most pronounced for beneficiaries who were last employed in business, finance and administration occupations (+12,000; +22.0%), followed by sales and service occupations (+8,600; +10.9%) and in trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations (+8,300; +5.1%).
Chart 3
In May, the number of regular Employment Insurance recipients up in several occupations year over year, 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 May 11 to 17. 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.
Historical revision of Employment Insurance data
With the August 21, 2025, release of June data, seasonally adjusted series of EI statistics will be revised back to January 2022 to reflect the most recent seasonal patterns.
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 June will be released August 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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