Canadian Unemployment Increases for Second Consecutive Month in June

Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported on Thursday (8-17-23) that in June, 410,000 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, up 7,300, or 1.8%, from the previous month. All of the net monthly increase can be traced directly to an increase of 8,800 beneficiaries in Quebec, 1,200 in Alberta, and 300 in Saskatchewan. Despite successive monthly increases in May and June, the number of EI beneficiaries in June remained far below levels seen in June 2022—down by 89,000 recipients, or 17.8%.

According to the Labor Force Survey, the unemployment rate in Canada increased 0.2 percentage points to 5.4% in June, the highest level since February 2022 when it was also 5.4%.

StatCan notes that in general, variations in the number of beneficiaries can reflect changes in 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.