Update – Atlantic Canada and EI / Almost 80% of the unemployed receive benefits compare with 1 in 3 for the rest of Canada

From the editor: I have to show you something. Before reading the news below, take a look at the figure.

These lines represent the ratio of Employment Insurance recipients to the official number of persons unemployed published by Stat Can. This is the indicator widely used to measure the effective coverage of EI in Canada.

The blue line represents Atlantic Canada, the red line, the Rest of Canada (date appears in french).

It is true that we can observe a “drop in employment insurance recipients in Atlantic Canada”, but almost 80% of the unemployed there receive benefits compare with 1 in 3 for the rest of Canada. This is the whole picture.

*** The news as it was***

A disproportionate drop in employment insurance recipients in Atlantic Canada suggests federal EI restrictions are having a negative impact that will only get worse as seasonal industries lay off staff, critics say.

“Those changes target seasonal workers,” said Erin Weir, an economist with the United Steelworkers Canadian national office. “We’ve already seen in the data that the number of employment insurance recipients has been cut more sharply in the Atlantic provinces than nationally.

“We’re not seeing a decline in unemployment, but we are seeing a decline in employment insurance,” he said from Regina. “And that would seem to reflect federal policies that are kicking people off benefits.”

Weir said the number of jobless workers has been stuck at around 1.4 million for at least the past year.

Yet, Statistics Canada reports that the number of those receiving EI benefits in July was down almost six per cent across Canada from the year before. That compares to a drop of 11 per cent over the same time period for Newfoundland and Labrador, 16 per cent in P.E.I., 12 per cent in Nova Scotia and nine per cent in New Brunswick.

In Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, the decline in EI benefits for each province was about three per cent.

B.C. had a drop of 11.5 per cent, Manitoba 12 per cent and Saskatchewan seven per cent.

The federal Conservative government says EI changes it implemented in January are a “modest and reasonable” effort to ensure the system is fair and flexible.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via EI stats drop in Atlantic Canada after changes aimed at seasonal work: economist | 680News.

Related Posts

Canada / Give the provinces full control over EI says Conservative Senator Diane Bellemare

In Créer et partager la prospérité (Creating and Sharing Prosperity), Ms. Bellemare argues for giving the provinces full control over EI. While employee and employer premiums would be the same across Canada, each province would be able to set eligibility rules and decide how to split the funds collected between cash benefits for the unemployed and training programs Continue reading»

Canada / Employment Insurance / Down for the fifth consecutive month

The number of people receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits continued to trend down for the fifth consecutive month in March, declining slightly by 1.0% (-5,200) to 523,700. Compared with a year earlier, the number of beneficiaries was down 8.1%. All four Western provinces as well as Newfoundland and Labrador had fewer beneficiaries in March, while there was … Continue reading »

Canada / In effect today: The new Job Alerts system to Employement Insurance Recipient

Employment Insurance changes come into effect today Contentious changes to employment insurance are now in effect. Beginning Sunday, people on EI face stricter, more complex rules for keeping their benefits, with the goal of getting unemployed workers back into the workforce sooner. To help people get back to work, the government has also launched a … Continue reading »

Canada / Employment-Insurance: The Thought of the Day

Unemployment insurance is meant to meet the labour market cyclical economic needs, the needs related to job search, the in-between. It is not supposed to be the mean to support income of the ‘chronically’ or repeatedly unemployed in an economically depressed area. Employment development cannot be achieved with income support. Michel Cournoyer Job Market Monitor‘s …Continue reading »

Canada / EI ‘Reform’ / Atlantic premiers name panel to study Ottawa’s changes

Atlantic Canada’s premiers have appointed a four-member panel to review Ottawa’s changes to employment insurance. A member from each of the four provinces will sit on the panel to be led by University of Moncton economist Pierre-Marcel Desjardins. The other members include Nova Scotia labour union leader Danny Cavanaugh, Ian MacPherson of the Prince Edward … Continue reading»