Employment Insurance, January 2021
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Released: 2021-03-25
January Employment Insurance (EI) statistics reflect labour market conditions as of the week of January 10 to 16.
During the reference week, public health measures already implemented for many regions of southern Ontario—including the closure of non-essential retail businesses—that were extended to the rest of the province effective December 26 were still in place. Existing public health measures also continued in Alberta and Manitoba, including the closure of in-person dining services, recreation facilities and personal care services, as well as restrictions on retail businesses. In Quebec, non-essential retail businesses were closed effective December 25, and a curfew implemented on January 14 further affected the operating hours of some businesses.
Public health measures were eased between the EI statistics reference weeks in December and January in two provinces. In Prince Edward Island, restrictions that led to the closure of in-person dining and recreation and cultural facilities were lifted on December 18. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the surrounding area, restrictions on in-person dining were eased on January 4.
Number of regular EI beneficiaries up sharply in January
The number of Canadians receiving regular EI benefits rose 11.2% (+149,000) to 1.5 million in January. Results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) indicate that 1.9 million people were unemployed in January, including 1.5 million who were looking for work and 400,000 who had a connection to a job, either because they were on temporary layoff or had arrangements to begin a new job in the near future.
Infographic 1
Number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries up sharply in January
Proportion of regular EI beneficiaries qualifying under new rules up in most provinces
In September, temporary changes to the EI program, including a reduction in the number of required insured hours, were introduced to increase EI eligibility. In January, the proportion of EI recipients qualifying for EI under these new eligibility rules continued to grow in most provinces, with Newfoundland and Labrador (+2.3 percentage points) and Nova Scotia (+0.7 percentage points) posting the largest increases (not seasonally adjusted). Quebec was the only province to show a decline (-0.6 percentage points).
Newfoundland and Labrador (16.8%) and Quebec (15.5%) had the highest proportions of regular EI beneficiaries qualifying for EI under the new rules, while Alberta (9.9%) had the lowest.
Chart 1
Proportion of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries qualifying under the new rules up in most provinces (not seasonally adjusted)
Increase in number of regular EI beneficiaries concentrated in Ontario and Quebec
In January, the increase in the number of regular EI beneficiaries was concentrated in Ontario (+82,000; +17.2%) and Quebec (+75,000; +25.0%), reflecting employment losses associated with public health measures implemented in both provinces at the end of December. The number of regular EI beneficiaries fell in British Columbia (-10,000; -6.7%), Nova Scotia (-3,000; -6.4%), New Brunswick (-1,000; -2.3%) and Saskatchewan (-600; -1.6%).
The majority of the January increase in the number of regular EI beneficiaries occurred in census metropolitan areas (CMAs) (+108,000; +11.6%), particularly CMAs in Quebec (+59,000; +28.4%) and Ontario (+57,000; +14.0%). In January, the three largest CMAs—Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver—accounted for over one-third (36.0%) of total regular EI recipients, up from 21.5% a year earlier.
Public health measures impact retail trade and accommodation and food services
The number of regular EI recipients was up in all industries compared with 12 months earlier, with accommodation and food services (+251,000; +728.5%) and retail trade (+177,000; +438.8%) posting the largest increases (not seasonally adjusted).
Illustrating the impact of ongoing public health measures, accommodation and food services (16.7%) continued to have the highest proportion of total regular EI recipients (not seasonally adjusted). According to January LFS data, employment in this industry was almost one-third (-31.4%) below its pre-pandemic February level, making this industry the one furthest from full recovery among all industries.
Proportion of youth EI recipients on the rise
Youth aged 15 to 24 accounted for 15.0% of total regular EI recipients in January, up from 9.1% one year earlier. The increase in proportion among young women (+4.1 percentage points) was more than double that among young men (+1.8 percentage points). January LFS results indicate that young women remained further from pre-pandemic employment levels than all other demographic groups.
The number of core-aged (25 to 54 years) men receiving regular EI benefits rose by 46,000 (+11.2%) in January, while the increase among core-aged women was 33,000 (+8.3%). Combined, men and women who last worked in retail trade accounted for almost one-quarter (23.5%) of the monthly increase in regular EI recipients (not seasonally adjusted).
Chart 2
Proportion of youth regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries on the rise
Looking ahead
According to the January LFS results, 26.9% of all unemployed people in January had been continuously out of work for 27 weeks or more, an indication that many workers continued to face challenges resulting from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labour market. This finding is reinforced by EI data, which show that 58.7% of regular EI recipients in January had received either regular EI benefits or the Canada Emergency Response Benefit for at least 7 of the 12 months before the survey, up from 15.6% one year earlier (not seasonally adjusted).
Sustainable development goals
On January 1, 2016, the world officially began implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—the United Nations' transformative plan of action that addresses urgent global challenges over the following 15 years. The plan is based on 17 specific sustainable development goals.
Employment Insurance statistics are an example of how Statistics Canada supports the reporting on the global sustainable development goals. This release will be used to help measure the following goal:
Note to readers
Employment Insurance in the context of broader COVID-19 benefit programs
No methodological changes were made to the Employment Insurance Statistics (EIS) program over the COVID-19 period. EIS reflect the Employment Insurance (EI) program for the Labour Force Survey (LFS) reference week in each month.
Data for the October 2020 reference period and onward consist of individuals who obtained EI benefits, and exclude beneficiaries of the Canada recovery benefits (Canada Recovery Benefit, Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit and Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit).
Concepts and methodology
The analysis focuses on people who received regular EI benefits related to job loss.
EI statistics are produced from administrative data sources provided by Service Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada. These statistics may, from time to time, be affected by changes to the Employment Insurance Act or administrative procedures.
EI statistics indicate the number of people who received EI benefits and should not be confused with LFS data, which provide estimates of the total number of unemployed people. There is always a certain proportion of unemployed people who do not qualify for benefits. Some unemployed people have not contributed to the program because they have not worked in the past 12 months or their employment was not insured. Other unemployed people have contributed to the program but do not meet the eligibility criteria, such as workers who left their jobs voluntarily or those who did not accumulate enough hours of work to receive benefits.
All data in this release are seasonally adjusted, unless otherwise specified. Values for all series from March 2020 to January 2021 have been treated as outliers in the determination of a seasonal pattern for seasonal adjustment. For more information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.
The number of regular EI beneficiaries for the current month and the previous month is subject to revision.
The number of beneficiaries is a measure of all people who received regular EI benefits from January 10 to 16. This period coincides with the reference week of the LFS.
Beneficiaries who qualified for EI under the new EI rules introduced in September 2020
Temporary changes to the EI program that provided all new regular EI beneficiaries with a one-time credit of 300 insurable hours were introduced on September 27, 2020. In addition, the unemployment rate used to calculate their eligibility and entitlement weeks was 13.1%, unless their region's unemployment rate was higher.
This supplementary indicator presents the number of individuals who qualified for EI only as a result of these program changes.
EI beneficiaries by industry
The industry of EI beneficiaries is determined through the integration of EI and record of employment administrative data. For beneficiaries with more than one record of employment in the past 52 weeks, the records with the greatest number of hours are used. If no industry information can be found, industry information is deemed "Not classified" for the beneficiary.
EI beneficiaries by number of months on EI or Canada Emergency Response Benefit over the last year
This supplementary indicator presents the number of regular EI recipients who received either regular EI benefits or the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) for a defined number of total months over the last 12 months.
A census metropolitan area (CMA) or census agglomeration (CA) is formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centred on a population centre. A CMA must have a total population of at least 100,000. A CA must have a population of at least 10,000. See Standard Geographical Classification 2016 – Definitions for more information.
Data availability
Data tables 14-10-0336 and 14-10-0337 remain suspended as of the December 2019 reference period, because of occupational coding issues from the source data file. Work is ongoing to identify a solution and continue publication of the tables.
Data tables 14-10-0004, 14-10-0005, 14-10-0007 and 14-10-0008 remain suspended as of the March 2020 reference period, because a source data file contains records for CERB claimants and beneficiaries that could not be identified and excluded through processing.
In the data table 14-10-0009, for the March to September reference periods, sub-aggregates of the parent "regular benefits" benefit type have been suppressed because of data quality.
Next release
Data on EI for February 2021 will be released on April 22, 2021.
Products
More information about the concepts and use of Employment Insurance statistics is available in the Guide to Employment Insurance Statistics (73-506-G).
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).
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