Employment Insurance (EI) in Canada, April 2015 – 521,300 people receiving regular benefits

There were 521,300 people receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in April, little changed from March (+0.5%) and compared with 12 months earlier (-0.4%).

For the fourth month in a row, Alberta led all provinces in terms of growth in the number of beneficiaries, with a 10.7% increase in April. British Columbia also posted a notable increase (+2.4%), while the number of beneficiaries in Saskatchewan rose slightly. In contrast, the number of beneficiaries fell in Prince Edward Island (-3.5%), and also declined slightly in Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba and New Brunswick.

The change in the number of regular EI beneficiaries reflects various situations, including people becoming beneficiaries, people going back to work and people no longer receiving regular benefits.

Chart 1 Number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at The Daily — Employment Insurance, April 2015.