Canadian Unemployment Edges Higher in March

On Thursday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that 470,000 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in March, up 0.1%, or 400, from February’s level. After trending higher from February to December 2023—up 19.8%, or 78,000—the number of regular EI recipients has remained relatively steady in recent months.

Year-over-year, the number of regular EI beneficiaries was up 18.9%, or 75,000, in March.

Data from the Labor Force Survey (LFS) show that the unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 6.1% in March, bringing the cumulative increase since March 2023 to 1.0 percentage point.

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.