Canadian Employment Insurance Benefits Hold Steady in March

On Thursday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that the number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits held steady in March, rising 0.3% (1,400 beneficiaries) to 497,000. This follows a 1.9% increase (9,000 beneficiaries) in February.

Compared with March 2024, the number of regular EI beneficiaries was up by 28,000, or 6.0%.

According to the Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate rose 0.6 percentage points year-over-year to 6.7% in March.

StatCan notes that variations in the number of EI beneficiaries receiving regular benefits can reflect changes in the circumstances of different groups of people, including those becoming beneficiaries, those going back to work, those exhausting their regular benefits, and those no longer receiving benefits for other reasons.