The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits increased by 8,900 (+1.6%) in November to 566,000. After trending up for the first half of the year—increasing 66,000 (+13.5%) from January to July—the number of beneficiaries had been little changed in August, September and October.
Data from the Labour Force Survey indicate that the unemployment rate trended up through most of 2025, reaching 7.1% in September prior to pulling back to 6.5% in November.
In general, variations in the number of EI beneficiaries receiving regular benefits can reflect changes in the circumstances of different groups of people, including new beneficiaries, individuals going back to work, those who have exhausted their regular benefits, and others who no longer receive benefits for various reasons.
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