Employment Insurance, August 2025
Released: 2025-10-23
The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits held steady (+0.1%; +500) at 552,000 in August, the second consecutive month of little change. This followed increases of 60,000 (+12.3%) over the first half of 2025.
Data from the Labour Force Survey indicate that the unemployment rate increased from 6.6% in January 2025 to 7.1% in August.
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 little changed for second consecutive month following an upward trend over first half of 2025
Number of regular Employment Insurance recipients down among core-aged women, while it is up among core-aged men and older men
In August, there was a decline in the number of regular EI recipients among core-aged (25 to 54 years old) women (-5.0%; -7,600), partly offsetting an increase in July. Meanwhile, there were increases in August mostly among core-aged men (+2.7%; +5,700) as well as among men aged 55 and older (+2.1%; +1,800).
In the 12 months ending in August, there were increases across all major demographic groups, with the largest proportional increases recorded among core-aged women (+20.3%; +24,000), women aged 55 and older (+12.3%; +6,100) and core-aged men (+8.8%; +17,000).
More regular Employment Insurance recipients in Alberta in August
The number of recipients with regular EI benefits was up in six provinces in August, with the largest proportional increases recorded in Alberta (+3.2%; +2,000), Prince Edward Island (+3.1%; +200), Manitoba (+2.6%; +500) and Newfoundland and Labrador (+2.5%; +700).
Quebec recorded a decrease in regular EI beneficiaries in August (-1.2%; -1,600), following increases in June and July. Meanwhile, the number of EI beneficiaries was down slightly in Ontario (-0.9%; -1,700).
On a year-over-year basis, increases in the number of recipients with regular EI benefits were broad-based across provinces in August. The largest proportional increase was in Alberta (+18.2%; +9,900), followed by British Columbia (+17.4%; +8,400). Notable year-over-year proportional increases were also recorded in Manitoba (+13.2%; +2,200), Ontario (+13.2%; +21,000) and Quebec (+12.1%; +14,000).
The Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA) recorded a year-over-year increase of 17.0% (+11,000) in the number of recipients with regular benefits in August. The Montréal CMA posted a year-over-year increase of 19.8% (+9,500).
Chart 2
Alberta and British Columbia post largest proportional year-over-year increases in regular Employment Insurance recipients in August
Largest decrease in the number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries in August is among recipients who last worked in education, law and social, community and government services
In August, the number of beneficiaries receiving regular EI benefits decreased the most among those who last worked in occupations in education, law and social, community and government services (-4,600; -6.7%), partly offsetting an increase in July.
In contrast, the number of beneficiaries receiving regular EI benefits increased the most in August among recipients who were last employed in trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations (+3,000; +1.7%) and sales and service occupations (+1,800; +2.0%).
On a year-over-year basis, the number of regular EI recipients was up across nearly all major occupational groups in August. Increases were most pronounced for beneficiaries who were last employed in business, finance and administration occupations (+14,000; +23.4%).
Notable year-over-year increases were also recorded among regular EI recipients who last worked in occupations in education, law and social, community and government services (+12,000; +24.4%) and in sales and service occupations (+11,000; +13.9%).
Chart 3
Largest year-over-year increase in regular Employment Insurance recipients among 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 August 10 to 16. 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 September will be released November 20.
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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