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.
Key highlights – December 23, 2025
- In October 2025, the total number of employment insurance (EI) beneficiaries increased by 12.4% in rural and small town (RST) Canada, compared with the previous month. Month over month increases in the number of EI beneficiaries were recorded across RST areas in all provinces and in Northwest Territories and Yukon. Yukon reported the largest percentage increase at 73.7%, followed by Prince Edward Island (+26.5%) and New Brunswick (+20.5%). By contrast, Nunavut recorded a monthly decline of 1.5%.
- From October 2024 to October 2025, the number of EI beneficiaries in RST areas increased in most provinces and territories. The largest year over year increase occurred in RST areas of Northwest Territories (+14.8%), followed by Alberta (+10.3%) and British Columbia (+9.5%). By contrast, Newfoundland and Labrador was the only province where RST areas experienced a year over year decline in the number of EI beneficiaries, decreasing by 0.3%.
Previous key highlights
Key highlights – November 25, 2025
- In September 2025, the total number of employment insurance (EI) beneficiaries decreased by 20.9% in rural and small town (RST) Canada, compared with the previous month. RST areas in Quebec reported the largest percentage decrease of EI beneficiaries at 29.4%, followed by Ontario (-28.5%) and Manitoba (-28.2%). By contrast, RST areas in Yukon saw the largest monthly increase at 11.8%, followed by Prince Edward Island (+4.6%) and Northwest Territories (+1.9%).
- RST areas in Northwest Territories (+17.8%) recorded the largest increase in the number of EI beneficiaries from September 2024 to September 2025, followed by Manitoba (+9.1%) and Nunavut (+8.2%). By contrast, RST areas in Yukon (-5.0%) led the year over year decline in the number of EI beneficiaries, followed by New Brunswick (-2.5%), Newfoundland and Labrador (-0.5%), and Nova Scotia (-0.5%).
Key highlights – October 28, 2025
- In August 2025, the total number of employment insurance (EI) beneficiaries increased by 2.7% in rural and small town (RST) Canada, compared with the previous month. RST areas in Newfoundland and Labrador reported the largest percentage increase of EI beneficiaries at 10.0%, followed by Northwest Territories (+6.1%) and Quebec (+5.8%). By contrast, RST areas in Prince Edward Island saw the largest monthly decline at 8.3%, followed by Yukon (-5.6%) and Nunavut (-2.6%).
- RST areas in Yukon (-15.0%) recorded a decline in the number of EI beneficiaries from August 2024 to August 2025, while other territories and provinces saw year over year increases, led by Northwest Territories (+13.0%), Manitoba (+7.2%) and Quebec (+4.9%).
Key highlights – September 23, 2025
- In July 2025, the total number of employment insurance (EI) beneficiaries increased across most rural and small town (RST) areas of Canada, compared with the previous month. RST areas in Prince Edward Island reported the largest percentage increase of EI beneficiaries at 82.4%, followed by Manitoba (+41.7%) and New Brunswick (+41.6%). By contrast, only RST areas in Yukon reported a monthly decline of 5.3%. Nationally, the average number of EI beneficiaries in RST areas grew by 31.7%, month over month.
- From July 2024 to July 2025, the number of EI beneficiaries decreased in RST areas of Yukon (-10.0%), New Brunswick (-6.4%), Newfoundland and Labrador (-2.7%), Northwest Territories (-2.0%), Saskatchewan (-0.9%), and Prince Edward Island (-0.4%). By contrast, the largest annual increases of EI beneficiaries were in RST areas of Quebec (+8.2%), Alberta (+5.0%) and British Columbia (+4.9%).
Key highlights – August 26, 2025
- In June 2025, the total number of employment insurance (EI) beneficiaries decreased across most rural and small town (RST) areas of Canada, compared with the previous month. RST areas in Prince Edward Island reported the largest percentage decline of EI beneficiaries at 22.1%. By contrast, Nunavut recorded the largest monthly increase at 18.0%, followed by RST areas in Nova Scotia (+8.4%) and Yukon (+5.6%). Nationally, the average number of EI beneficiaries fell by 10.6% on a month-over-month basis.
- From June 2024 to June 2025, the number of EI beneficiaries declined in RST areas across Prince Edward Island (-6.2%), New Brunswick (-6.0%), Northwest Territories (-4.1%) and Nova Scotia (-1.3%). By contrast, RST areas in Alberta experienced the largest annual increase at 6.4%, followed by Yukon (+5.6%) and Nunavut (+4.3%).
Key highlights – July 29, 2025
- In May 2025, the total number of employment insurance (EI) beneficiaries decreased across all rural and small town (RST) areas of Canada, compared with the previous month. RST areas of Prince Edward Island recorded the largest monthly decline at 50.0%, followed by Yukon (-40.0%) and Nova Scotia (-28.9%). Nunavut reported the lowest percentage decline at 3.2%. Nationally, the average number of EI beneficiaries fell by 22.0% on a month-over-month basis.
- From May 2024 to May 2025, the number of EI beneficiaries continued to decline in RST areas across the Territories, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba. By contrast, RST areas in Newfoundland and Labrador experienced the largest annual increase at 7.4%, followed by Ontario (+6.1%) and British Columbia (+3.7%).
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.
Contact Rural Client Services for additional information or enquiries.
Methodology
In July 2024, Employment Insurance statistics were revised back to January 2000 to reflect the 2021 Standard Geographical Classification (SGC). Data based on 2016 SGC are available in the archived table 14-10-0137-01, for the reference periods from 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 area or functional urban area), for each reference month. Values for rural and small town area were further categorized by census metropolitan influenced zones (MIZ). Additionally, on an annual basis, the number of beneficiaries was aggregated by age group for each census metropolitan area (CMA), census agglomeration (CA), and rural and small town area 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.
Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any data which would divulge information obtained under the Statistics Act that relates to any identifiable person, business or organization without the prior knowledge or the consent in writing of that person, business or organization. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data. If data for a specific community are not available, please contact the Rural Data Lab's Rural Client Services for assistance.
Definitions
Key definitions are provided to help users navigate the interactive dashboard.
- 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).
- Census agglomeration (CA)
- Formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centered 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 area (CMA)
- Formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centered 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 metropolitan influenced zone (MIZ)
- A geographical concept that differentiates the area of Canada outside CMAs and CAs. Census subdivisions (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.
- 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.
- Functional urban area (CMA/CA)
- Census subdivisions within census metropolitan areas (CMAs) or census agglomerations (CAs), according to Statistics Canada's Standard Geographical Classification. For more information see: Variant of Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) 2021 for Statistical area classification.
- 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.
- 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. For more information see: Variant of Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) 2021 for Statistical area classification.
- Special benefits
- As part of the employment insurance program, additional provisions provided alongside regular benefits, including sickness, maternity, parental and caregiver benefits.
Other resources
Employment by industry in rural Canada: Interactive dashboard
Learn more
To find more rural and small town Canada products, visit:
Rural Canada Statistics Portal
Rural Statistics in Canada (45-20-0004)
Rural and Small Town Canada Analysis Bulletin (21-006-X)
Questions? Contact Rural Client Services.
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