Employment Insurance Beneficiaries in Rural and Small Town Canada: Interactive Dashboard
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Note to readers
Statistics on employment insurance and its beneficiaries provide valuable insight into changing circumstances among different demographic groups, serving as a fundamental metric of economic dynamics. This interactive dashboard is designed for users to explore both current and historical counts of employment insurance beneficiaries in rural and small town Canada by geography, sex, age group, and other beneficiary details. Use the tabs below to examine trends in employment insurance assistance over time.
Data
The data used to create this interactive web application is from the following listed data table:
Additional footnotes for this interactive dashboard are available for download:
Employment insurance beneficiaries footnotes
The file size is approximately 8KB and can take up to 1 minute to download.
Additional information
Data presented in this dashboard are sourced from the Employment Insurance Statistics - Monthly (EIS) program, focusing on variations in the number of employment insurance beneficiaries across rural and small town Canada. The dashboard aims to reflect changing circumstances, including individuals becoming beneficiaries, returning to work, exhausting regular benefits, or ceasing to receive benefits for other reasons.
Definitions
- Rural and small town (non-CMA/CA)
- Census subdivisions outside census metropolitan areas (CMAs) or census agglomerations (CAs), according to Statistics Canada’s Standard Geographical Classification (SGC). Variant of Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) 2021 for Statistical area classification.
- Functional urban area (CMA/CA)
- Census subdivisions within CMAs or CAs, according to Statistics Canada’s SGC. For more information see: Variant of Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) 2021 for Statistical area classification.
- Census subdivision (CSD)
- A general term for municipalities (as determined by provincial and territorial legislation) or areas treated as municipal equivalents for statistical purposes (e.g., Indian reserves, Indian settlements and unorganized territories). Municipal status is defined by laws in effect in each province and territory in Canada.
- Census metropolitan area (CMA)
- Formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centred on a population centre (known as the core). A CMA must have a total population of at least 100,000 of which 50,000 or more must live in the core, based on adjusted data from the Census of Population Program.
- Census agglomeration (CA)
- Formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centred on a population centre (known as the core). A CA must have a core population of at least 10,000, based on adjusted data from the Census of Population Program.
- Census metropolitan influenced zone (MIZ)
- A geographical concept that differentiates the area of Canada outside CMAs and CAs. CSDs that are outside CMAs and CAs in the provinces are assigned to one of four categories according to the degree of influence (strong, moderate, weak or no influence) that the CMAs or CAs have on them. CSDs that are outside CAs in the territories are assigned to a separate category.
- Beneficiary
- A person who receives employment insurance benefits during the Labour Force Survey reference week (usually the week including the 15th day of the month).
- Regular benefits
- Benefits paid to claimants who have temporarily or permanently lost their job. To be eligible for regular benefits, claimants must have become unemployed through no fault of their own (because of a shortage of work, seasonal layoffs, etc.) and are available and able to work.
- Regular benefits with declared earnings
- Regular benefits received during the reference week with reported or declared earnings. These earning may or may not affect the benefit payment received.
- Regular benefits without declared earnings
- Regular benefits received during the reference week with no reported or declared earnings.
- Special benefits
- As part of the employment insurance program, additional provisions provided alongside regular benefits, including sickness, maternity, parental and caregiver benefits.
Methodology
In July 2024, Employment Insurance statistics were revised back to January 2000 to reflect the 2021 SGC. Data based on 2016 SGC are available in the archived table 14-10-0137-01, for period between January 2000 to March 2024.
The number of beneficiaries (unadjusted for seasonality) was aggregated based on geography (Canada, province or territory) and area (rural and small town or functional urban area), for each reference month. Values for rural and small town were further categorized by MIZ. Additionally, on an annual basis, the number of beneficiaries was aggregated by age group for each CMA, CA, and rural and small town by province or territory.
Considerations
Due to the COVID-19 situation, many Canadians who were not employed and seeking income assistance between March 15 and September 26, 2020, were accessing Government of Canada benefit programs other than employment insurance, such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. As a result, the EIS program was suspended between the March and September 2020 reference months. Data for this period were released on December 17, along with data for October 2020.
Data for the March to September reference months should be used with caution due to program implications over the COVID-19 period. For more information, please refer to the October 2020 reference month release of EIS.
Other resources
Learn more
To find more rural and small town Canada products, visit:
Rural Canada Statistics Portal
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