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The Daily

The Daily. Thursday, July 26, 2001

Employment Insurance

May 2001 (preliminary)

The estimated number of Canadians (adjusted for seasonality) receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in May rose a slight 0.2% from April to 496,840. The largest monthly rise in the number of beneficiaries occurred in Yukon (+5.3%), Ontario (+5.0%) and New Brunswick (+4.4%), whereas Newfoundland (-5.5%) reported the largest decline.

Regular benefit payments fell 6.9% from April to $610.9 million. The number of EI claims received rose 0.8% to 249,370.

Number of beneficiaries receiving regular benefits


  May 2001(p) April to May 2001 May 2000 to May 2001
  Seasonally adjusted
       
    % change
Canada 496,840 0.2 5.0
       
Newfoundland 33,100 -5.5 4.5
Prince Edward Island 8,120 -1.7 0.7
Nova Scotia 28,990 0.3 3.8
New Brunswick 36,610 4.4 10.0
Quebec 172,090 -0.5 4.1
Ontario 115,300 5.0 13.9
Manitoba 12,720 -0.3 -3.0
Saskatchewan 10,540 -1.0 -3.8
Alberta 22,500 1.3 -19.2
British Columbia 57,880 4.3 5.9
Yukon 800 5.3 1.3
Northwest Territories and Nunavut 920 -1.1 -22.0
pPreliminary figures.

Note: The historical revision to the number of beneficiaries of EI (both unadjusted and adjusted for seasonal variation) is now complete. This revision was necessary owing to an understating of beneficiaries' data from January 1997 to April 2000. It was a joint Statistics Canada and Human Resources Development Canada activity. At the same time, seasonal factors of the data series on claims received, benefits paid and weeks were revised from January 1997. The Employment Insurance Statistics Program is based on an administrative data source and may, from time to time, be subject to revision. A note describing the impact of the revision can be obtained from Labour Statistics Division Client Services (1-866-873-8788; 613-951-4090; fax: 613-951-2869; labour@statcan.gc.ca). The revised data are available in this release and on CANSIM.

The number of beneficiaries is a measure of all persons who received EI benefits for the week containing the 15th day of the month. The regular benefit payments series measures the total of all monies individuals received over the entire month. These different reference periods must be taken into consideration when comparisons are done between the series.

The Employment Insurance Act allows each province or administrative region of Human Resources Development Canada to have certain autonomy in the application of administrative procedures regarding renewal claims. Data users must take into consideration that movements in levels from month to month may be affected by different administrative procedures regarding renewal claims from one province or region to another.

Employment Insurance statistics


  May 2000 April 2001 May 2001 April to May 2001 May 2000 to May 2001
  Seasonally adjusted
           
        % change
Regular beneficiaries 473,370 495,720(p) 496,840(p) 0.2 5.0
Regular benefits paid ($ millions) 587.7 656.3 610.9 -6.9 3.9
Claims received ('000) 216.4 247.5 249.4 0.8 15.2
           
  Unadjusted for seasonality
           
        % change
All beneficiaries ('000) 594.8 759.4(p) 639.1(p) -15.8 7.4
Regular beneficiaries ('000) 436.5 569.1(p) 457.5(p) -19.6 4.8
Claims received ('000) 164.5 195.7 185.0 -5.5 12.5
Payments ($ millions) 906.4 1,335.7 888.9 -33.5 -1.9
           
  Year-to-date (January to May)
           
      2000 2001 2000  to  2001
           
          % change
Claims received ('000)     992.3 1,130.3 13.9
Payments ($ millions)     5,594.0 5,805.6 3.8
pPreliminary figures.
Note:All beneficiaries includes all claimants receiving regular benefits (e.g., due to layoff) or special benefits (e.g., due to illness).

Available on CANSIM: tables 2760001-2760006, 2760009 and 2760012 and matrices 26 (series 1.6), 5700-5717, 5735 and 5736.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Gilles Groleau or Jean Leduc (1-866-873-8788; 613-951-4090, fax: 613-951-2869; labour@statcan.gc.ca), Labour Statistics Division.


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Date Modified: 2001-07-26 Important Notices