In April, 384,000 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, little changed from 386,000 in March. Since November 2022, the number of regular EI beneficiaries has varied little, remaining at or near record lows (outside of the period when the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit was in place from March to September 2020).
According to the Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate held steady at 5.0% in April 2023, unchanged since December 2022.
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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