Employment Insurance

The estimated number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance benefits in April fell 1.6% from March to 493,250 (seasonally adjusted), the third consecutive decline and the seventh in the last eight months.

All provinces recorded decreases in April, with the largest occurring in British Columbia (-4.0%), Alberta (-3.2%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (-2.3%).

At the national level, the number of regular beneficiaries fell 6.6% from a year ago and has fallen by 2.1% in the last five years. Over this five-year period, the western provinces have recorded the largest declines.

Regular benefit payments in April totalled $785.8 million, while the number of people making initial and renewal claims was 232,850.

Note: Employment Insurance Statistics Program data are produced from an administrative data source and may, from time to time, be affected by changes to the Employment Insurance Act or administrative procedures. The number of beneficiaries for this month is a measure of all persons who received Employment Insurance benefits from the 9th to the 15th of the month. This coincides with the reference week of the Labour Force Survey. The regular benefit payments figure measures the total of all monies paid to individuals from the 1st to the end of the month.

Available on CANSIM: tables 276-0001 to 276-0006, 276-0009, 276-0011, 276-0015 and 276-0016.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2604.

Data on Employment Insurance for May 2006 will be released on July 25.

For general information or to order data, contact Client Services (613-951-4090; toll-free 1-866-873-8788; labour@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Gilles Groleau (613-951-4091), Labour Statistics Division.