Canadian Unemployment Up Month-Over-Month and Year-Over-Year in November

On Friday (1-19-24), Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that there were 460,000 Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in November. That is 1.7%, or 7,900 persons, higher than in October. On a year-over-year basis, the total number of regular EI beneficiaries increased 13.1%, or 53,000 persons.

The number of regular EI beneficiaries increased in 5 of 10 provinces. Manitoba led the way with an 8.3% increase, or 1,300 persons. It was followed by Alberta reporting a 3.8%, or 1,800-person, increase. Ontario was up 3.0%, adding 4,000 new beneficiaries; Prince Edward Island reported a 2.8% increase, an additional 200 beneficiaries; and British Columbia reported a 1.0% increase, adding 500 EI beneficiaries. There was little change in the remaining provinces.

Data from the Labor Force Survey (LFS) shows that the unemployment rate increased 0.1 percentage points to a reading of 5.8% in November, bringing the cumulative increase since April 2023 to 0.8 percentage points.

StatCan notes that, 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.