Employment Insurance, June 2021
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Released: 2021-08-19
The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits dropped 34,000 (-2.0%) in June to 1.7 million. Ontario, Quebec and Alberta accounted for all of the national monthly decrease.
June EI statistics reflect labour market conditions as of the week of June 13 to 19.
By mid-June, public health measures had been significantly eased in several jurisdictions. Most indoor and outdoor dining, recreation and cultural activities, retail shopping, and personal care services had resumed or continued in eight provinces, with varying degrees of capacity restrictions.
Ontario's stay-at-home order was lifted on June 2, and outdoor dining and some non-essential in-person shopping resumed on June 11. However, indoor dining and gyms, as well as personal care services, remained closed during the reference week. Manitoba remained under tight public health restrictions, including the closure of restaurants and bars, personal care services, and recreation and cultural facilities.
Fewer Canadians collect regular EI benefits in June
Approximately 1.7 million Canadians received regular EI benefits in June, down 34,000 (-2.0%) from a month earlier.
According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), employment rose by 231,000 in June, while unemployment fell to 1.6 million, including 1.4 million Canadians who were looking for work and 200,000 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.
Chart 1
Fewer regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries in June
The proportion of regular EI beneficiaries qualifying under the new rules up in all provinces
In late September 2020, temporary changes to the EI program, including a reduction in the number of required insured hours, were introduced to increase EI eligibility. In June, the proportion of regular EI recipients qualifying for EI under these new eligibility rules increased in all provinces, led by Newfoundland and Labrador (+1.5 percentage points), Prince Edward Island (+1.4 percentage points) and New Brunswick (+1.4 percentage points) (not seasonally adjusted).
Newfoundland and Labrador (23.0%) and Quebec (20.4%) had the highest proportions of regular EI beneficiaries qualifying for EI under the new rules, while Alberta (12.3%) had the lowest (not seasonally adjusted).
Chart 2
The proportion of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries qualifying under the new rules up in all provinces (not seasonally adjusted)
Ontario, Quebec and Alberta account for all of the decrease in regular EI beneficiaries
In June, Ontario (-40,000; -6.4%), Quebec (-22,000; -6.3%) and Alberta (-5,000; -2.4%) accounted for all of the national monthly decrease in regular EI beneficiaries. June LFS results indicated that employment rose in Ontario (+117,000; +1.6%) and Quebec (+72,000; +1.7%) and was little changed in Alberta. At the same time, New Brunswick (+13,000; +19.3%) and British Columbia (+8,000; +4.1%) had the largest increases in regular EI beneficiaries.
On a regional basis, the decline in the number of regular EI beneficiaries was concentrated in census metropolitan areas (CMAs), led by Montréal (-23,000; -14.8%) and Toronto (-17,000; -5.9%). June LFS results indicated that the CMAs of Montréal and Toronto each accounted for just over three-quarters of the monthly employment increase in their respective province.
Half of regular EI recipients last worked in one of four industries
In June, almost half (47.0%) of regular EI recipients last worked in one of four industries, including 16.7% in accommodation and food services; 12.5% in retail trade; 9.4% in construction; and 8.4% in manufacturing (not seasonally adjusted). Compared with June 2019, the share of regular EI recipients who last worked in accommodation and food services was 10.3 percentage points higher. June LFS results showed that employment in these same four industries was 447,000 below levels in February 2020, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chart 3
Almost half of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries last worked in one of four industries (not seasonally adjusted)
The number of regular EI recipients decreases most among core-aged women
In June, the number of core-aged (25 to 54 years) women receiving regular EI benefits fell by 14,000 (-2.7%), twice the decrease as among core-aged men (-7,000, -1.7%). June LFS results showed that employment rose by 48,000 among core-aged women and held steady among core-aged men.
June marked the first month since November 2020 that the number of young women aged 15 to 24 years receiving regular EI benefits declined. By comparison, the number of EI recipients among young men has been declining since February 2021. According to June LFS results, employment increased by 115,000 among young women, more than double the increase among young men (+49,000).
Long-term unemployment reflected in regular EI benefits
The June LFS showed that 30.0% of all unemployed had been continuously out of work for 27 weeks or more, compared with 15.6% before the pandemic in February 2020. The impact of COVID-19 on long-term joblessness is also reflected in Employment Insurance data. Of those who received regular EI benefits in June, just over two-thirds (69.1%) had received regular EI benefits or the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) in at least 7 of the last 12 months, up from 16.1% in February 2020 (not seasonally adjusted). Among men, 67.0% received regular EI benefits or CERB in at least 7 of the last 12 months, compared with 71.2% of women. By province, the proportion of EI recipients who had received regular EI benefits or CERB in at least 7 of the last 12 months ranged from 64.2% in Nova Scotia to 71.4% in British Columbia.
Next release
July EI results will reflect the impact on regular EI recipients as the economy continues to reopen amid easing public health measures in most jurisdictions.
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 reporting on 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 pandemic 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 comprise 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 June 2021 have been treated as outliers in determining 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 June 13 to 19. 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 by integrating EI data with 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 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 to continue publishing 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 who could not be identified and excluded through processing.
In the data table 14-10-0009, for the March to September 2020 reference periods, subaggregates of the parent "regular benefits" benefit type have been suppressed because of data quality.
Next release
Data on EI for July will be released on September 23.
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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