Employment Insurance, July 2025
Released: 2025-09-18
The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits increased by 6,600 (+1.2%) to 552,000 in July, continuing the upward trend that began at the start of 2025. From December 2024 to July 2025, the number of beneficiaries increased by 64,000 (+13.2%).
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 various reasons.
Chart 1
Number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries on an upward trend over the first seven months of 2025
The number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries increases among core-aged women
In July, the number of EI recipients receiving regular benefits increased among core-aged (25 to 54 years old) women (+16,000; +12.0%). On the other hand, there were declines recorded among core-aged men (-5,200; -2.4%), women aged 55 and older (-3,800; -6.3%) and young men aged 15 to 24 (-900; -2.6%).
Compared with July 2024, the number of recipients receiving regular EI benefits increased among all major demographic groups in July 2025, with the largest proportional increases among core-aged women (+22.9%; +28,000), women aged 55 and older (+14.1%; +7,000) and core-aged men (+10.0%; +19,000).
More regular Employment Insurance recipients in four provinces
The increase in the number of recipients with regular EI benefits in July was proportionally the largest in Manitoba (+3.8%; +700), followed by British Columbia (+3.0%; +1,600), Quebec (+2.2%; +2,800) and Alberta (+1.9%; +1,200).
In Manitoba, July (+3.8%; +700) marked the fourth consecutive monthly increase in the number of regular EI recipients. In British Columbia, the increase in July (+3.0%; +1,600) followed increases in April and May, and little change in June.
Quebec posted an increase of 2.2% (+2,800) in July, which was concentrated in the Montréal census metropolitan area (+3.6%; +2,100). This brought the cumulative increase since January 2025 in Quebec to 24,000 (+22.9%).
In July, there were also more EI beneficiaries with regular benefits in Alberta (+1.9%; +1,200), bringing the cumulative increase since January 2025 to 6,700 (+12.0%).
On a year-over-year basis, Quebec (+19.2%; +21,000) recorded the largest proportional increase in the number of regular EI recipients among all provinces in July, followed by British Columbia (+17.4%; +8,500), Ontario (+16.2%; +26,000) and Alberta (+14.0%; +7,600).
Chart 2
Manitoba, British Columbia and Quebec post the largest proportional monthly increases in regular Employment Insurance recipients in July
The largest increase in the number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries in July is among recipients who last worked in education, law, and social, community and government services
In July, the number of beneficiaries receiving regular EI benefits increased the most among recipients who were last employed in education, law, and social, community and government services (+15,000; +27.6%). This was partially offset by a decline in the number of beneficiaries who last worked in trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations (-6,300; -3.6%).
Compared with July 2024, the number of regular EI recipients was up across several major occupational groups in July 2025. Increases were most pronounced for beneficiaries who were last employed in education, law, and social, community and government services (+17,000; +30.8%). Notable increases were also recorded on a year-over-year basis among those who last worked in business, finance and administration (+16,000; +26.4%), as well as among those who last worked in sales and service occupations (+12,000; +15.3%).
Chart 3
Largest year-over-year increases in regular Employment Insurance recipients among those who last worked in education, law and social, community and government services, and 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 July 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 August will be released October 23.
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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