The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits declined by 9,600 (-1.9%) in September. This followed little change in August. The number of EI recipients had been trending up from April 2024 to July 2024.
On a year-over-year basis, the number of regular EI beneficiaries was up by 23,000 (+4.9%) in September.
Data from the Labour Force Survey show that, in September, employment rose by 47,000 (+0.2%), while the unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 6.5%. Compared with September 2023, the unemployment rate was up 0.9 percentage points, and the number of unemployed people who had been laid off increased to 463,000 (+4.5%; +20,000) (not seasonally adjusted).
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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