Employment Insurance, October 2025
Released: 2025-12-18
The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits edged up (+1.1%; +6,200) to 553,000 in October. The number of beneficiaries has changed little since July, following an upward trend from January to June (+59,000; +12.0%).
Data from the Labour Force Survey indicate that the unemployment rate was 6.9% in October, down from 7.1% in September, but up from 6.6% in January 2025.
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 from July to October, following an upward trend over first half of 2025
Regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries up the most among core-aged men and older men
In October, the increase in the number of EI beneficiaries was concentrated among core-aged (25 to 54 years old) men (+2,400; +1.1%), and men aged 55 and older (+1,300; +1.5%).
In the 12 months ending in October, there were increases across all major demographic groups, with the largest proportional increases recorded for core-aged women (+19.4%; +23,000) and core-aged men (+10.2%; +20,000).
More regular Employment Insurance recipients in Alberta in October
The number of recipients with regular EI benefits rose in seven provinces in October, with most provinces recording small increases. Alberta (+2,300; +3.5%) and New Brunswick (+700; +2.6%) posted the largest proportional increases among the provinces in October.
On a year-over-year basis, the largest proportional increase in October was in British Columbia (+22.3%; +11,000), followed by Alberta (+21.7%; +12,000), Ontario (+14.0%; +22,000), and Quebec (+13.5%; +15,000).
Chart 2
British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec post largest proportional year-over-year increases in regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries in October
More recipients with regular Employment Insurance benefits in October who last worked in trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations
The number of regular EI recipients increased in October among those who last worked in trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations (+2,300; +1.3%), sales and service occupations (+1,400; +1.5%), and natural resources, agriculture and related production occupations (+1,200; +4.0%). The number of recipients among those who last worked in other broad occupational categories was little changed in October.
In the 12 months ending in October, the number of beneficiaries receiving regular EI benefits was up across all major occupational groups. The largest year-over-year increases were among recipients who last worked in sales and service occupations (+14,000; +17.7%), and among recipients who were last employed in business, finance and administration occupations (+14,000; +23.5%).
Chart 3
Largest year-over-year increases in regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries among those who last worked in sales and service occupations, and among recipients last employed in business, finance and administration occupations
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 October 12 to 18. 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 November 2025 will be released January 22, 2026.
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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