In May, 464,000 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, up 1.9% (+8,700) from April. Prior to the increase in May, the number of regular EI recipients had held relatively steady since September 2023.
On a year-over-year basis, the number of regular EI beneficiaries was up by 57,000 (+14.0%) in May 2024.
Data from the Labour Force Survey show that employment was little changed in May and the unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 6.2%. Compared with 12 months earlier, the unemployment rate was up by 0.9 percentage points in May.
In general, variations in the number of EI beneficiaries can reflect changes in the circumstances of different groups, including those becoming beneficiaries, those going back to work, those exhausting their regular benefits, and those no longer receiving benefits for other reasons.
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