New data from the 2023 Employment Insurance Coverage Survey (EICS) provide an overview of who has access to regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, and why people may not have access to benefits. The survey also covers Canadian parents' use of the maternity and parental benefits available under the EI program. All these benefits provide temporary income support while people are not working.
In 2023, an average of 1.1 million Canadians were unemployed at any point during the year. Two-thirds of these people (66.0% or 744,000) had contributed to the EI program. This contribution rate was up from 59.2% in 2022 and above the average from 2017 to 2019 (62.8%).
To be eligible for regular EI benefits, one must have contributed to the EI program, have a valid job separation (for example, were laid off or quit for just cause), and have accumulated enough insurable hours (see the infographic "Employment Insurance coverage and eligibility in 2023").
The EI eligibility rate is the number of people who had accumulated enough insurable hours to be eligible to receive regular EI benefits, expressed as a proportion of all those who were unemployed in 2023, had contributed to EI and had a valid job separation (for example, laid off or quit for just cause).
The eligibility rate in 2023 was 83.1%, down 6.5 percentage points from 2022. This was just below the average eligibility rate of 84.7% during the period from 2017 to 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. For part of 2022, eligibility requirements were still temporarily changed in response to the pandemic, which may have contributed to a higher eligibility rate. In 2023, eligibility requirements for regular EI had returned to standard requirements.
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; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).