Increase in Employment Insurance Beneficiaries in August 2024
In August 2024, the number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits rose by 7,400, marking a 1.5% increase from the previous month. This represents the third increase in four months. Prior to these increases, the number of regular EI beneficiaries remained relatively stable from September 2023 to April 2024.
On a year-over-year basis, the number of regular EI beneficiaries increased by 26,000, which is a 5.6% rise compared to August of the previous year. Data from the Labour Force Survey indicate that in the four months leading up to August, the unemployment rate increased by 0.5 percentage points to 6.6%, as more individuals searched for work while overall employment levels remained largely unchanged.
The variations in the number of EI beneficiaries can be attributed to several factors, including changes in the circumstances of different groups. These include individuals becoming beneficiaries, returning to work, exhausting their regular benefits, or no longer receiving benefits for other reasons.