Canadian Unemployment Holds Steady at 5.5% in September

Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported on Thursday (11-16-23) that the number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits was little changed in September—down 4,000 recipients, or 0.9%—and stood at 437,000. This follows three consecutive monthly increases ending in July and a slight decline in August. Year-over-year, the number of regular EI beneficiaries fell 10,000, or 2.3%.

StatCan notes that in general, variations in the number of regular 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.

According to the Labor Force Survey (LFS), the unemployment rate was unchanged in September, holding at 5.5% for the third month in a row. This follows an increase of 0.5 percentage points from April to July.