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Employment Insurance, April 2021

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Released: 2021-06-17

April Employment Insurance (EI) statistics reflect labour market conditions as of the week of April 11 to 17.

Public health measures were tightened in several provinces in late March and early April. In Ontario, a province-wide stay-at-home order was implemented on April 8, which set capacity limits for many non-essential businesses, while permitting curbside pick-up and home delivery. Ontario schools were closed for spring break during the week of April 12. British Columbia was under "circuit breaker" restrictions as of March 30, which included limits on indoor dining and gyms. Stricter public health measures were also reinstated in many parts of Quebec, including the suspension of various business activities, as well as the extension of curfews.

Number of regular EI beneficiaries up in April

The number of Canadians receiving regular EI benefits rose 9.8% (+144,000) to 1.6 million in April. Results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) indicate that employment fell by 207,000 in April, while unemployment rose to 1.6 million, including 1.4 million people who were looking for work and 200,000 who had a connection to a job, because they either were on temporary layoff or had arrangements to begin a new job in the near future.

Chart 1  Chart 1: Regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries up in April
Regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries up in April

The proportion of regular EI beneficiaries qualifying under new rules increases in all provinces

In late September, temporary changes were introduced to the EI program, including a reduction in the number of insurable hours required for EI eligibility. In April, the proportion of regular EI beneficiaries qualifying for EI under these new eligibility rules increased in all provinces compared with when the new rules took effect, led by Newfoundland and Labrador (+10.7 percentage points) and Nova Scotia (+5.5 percentage points) (not seasonally adjusted). Newfoundland and Labrador (20.2%) and Quebec (18.2%) had the highest proportions of regular EI beneficiaries qualifying for EI under the new rules, while Alberta (11.4%) had the lowest (not seasonally adjusted).

Chart 2  Chart 2: Proportion of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries qualifying under the new rules up in all provinces (not seasonally adjusted)
Proportion of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries qualifying under the new rules up in all provinces (not seasonally adjusted)

Increase in the number of regular EI beneficiaries concentrated in Ontario

The number of regular EI beneficiaries increased in seven provinces in April, led by Ontario (+101,000; +19.1%) and British Columbia (+20,000; +12.1%). Ontario accounted for 70.5% of the monthly increase in total regular EI beneficiaries, reflecting both the reintroduction of strict public health measures and the spring break closure of schools in the province. According to LFS results, employment in Ontario fell 153,000 (-2.1%) in April.

At the same time, Newfoundland and Labrador (-600; -1.0%) posted a decrease in the number of regular EI beneficiaries, while Quebec and Manitoba showed little change.

The majority (81.6%) of the increase in the number of regular EI recipients occurred in census metropolitan areas (CMAs) (+117,000; +11.7%). The Toronto CMA accounted for more than one-third (37.4%) of the increase in total regular EI recipients. This is reflected in April LFS results, which indicate that one-quarter of the national decline in employment was observed in the Toronto CMA. In April, CMAs accounted for 69.7% of regular EI recipients, compared with 50.6% in February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Industries most impacted by public health measures account for two in five regular EI recipients

According to April LFS results, employment remained below pre-COVID-19 levels in industries most impacted by public health measures, including accommodation and food services (-29.8%); information, culture and recreation (-10.5%); other services (-7.5%); and retail trade (-4.9%). The profile of regular EI recipients further illustrates the impact of pandemic response measures on these same industries. In April, almost two in five regular EI recipients (39.4%) last worked in one of these four industries, more than double the proportion (19.4%) in February 2020 (not seasonally adjusted).

Chart 3  Chart 3: Industries most impacted by public health measures account for two in five regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries (not seasonally adjusted)
Industries most impacted by public health measures account for two in five regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries (not seasonally adjusted)

Women account for total monthly increase in regular EI recipients

In April, the number of people receiving regular EI benefits rose by 155,000 (+22.7%) among women and dropped by 11,000 (-1.4%) among men. The increase in female regular EI recipients was concentrated in Ontario (+120,000; +48.0%), reflecting both tightened public health measures and spring break school closures in the province. According to the April LFS, national unemployment among women rose 11.4% (+80,000), more than double the increase of 5.4% (+44,000) among men.

In April, the number of regular EI recipients aged 15 to 24 increased by 217,000 (+534.6%) compared with February 2020. Female youth accounted for 52.7% of young beneficiaries in April, compared with 29.9% in February 2020, before the pandemic. April LFS results indicated that employment among female youth remained further from pre-pandemic levels than that among all other demographic groups.

Number of long-term regular EI recipients continues to rise

April LFS results indicated that the number of long-term unemployed Canadians continued to increase, as some people who lost their jobs in the spring, summer and fall of 2020 remained unemployed. Almost one-third (29.6%) of those who were unemployed in April had been without work for 27 weeks or more, compared with 15.6% in February 2020.

The challenges faced by many workers in returning to employment are also reflected in EI data. In April, 41.2% of regular EI recipients had received regular EI benefits or the Canada Emergency Response Benefit in at least 10 of the 12 previous months, compared with 1.2% in February 2020, before the pandemic (not seasonally adjusted). Among long-term regular EI recipients, more than half (52.1%) were women and almost 6 in 10 (58.9%) were core-aged (aged 25 to 54 years) (not seasonally adjusted).

Next release

EI results for May will reflect the impacts on regular EI recipients of both continued and reintroduced public health measures in many regions in the weeks following the April reference week.



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 April 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 April 11 to 17. 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 previous 12 months

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 previous 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 May will be released on July 22.

Products

More information about the concepts and use of Employment Insurance statistics is available in the Guide to Employment Insurance Statistics (Catalogue number73-506-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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