In September, 27,000 (-5.6%) fewer Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, bringing the total number of beneficiaries to 455,000, a similar level to February 2020 (447,000) prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the unemployment rate in September 2022 fell 0.2 percentage points to 5.2%, as fewer people searched for work.
In general, variations in the number of 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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