The number of people receiving Employment Insurance continue to fall in Calgary, Edmonton and across Alberta.
Data released on Tuesday by Statistics Canada indicates the number of regular EI beneficiaries in the province has plunged from a year ago. The 24.2 per cent year-over-year decline is the largest in Canada in October.
The federal agency said there were 47,210 regular EI beneficiaries in Alberta in October, down 520 people from the previous month and off by 15,110 year over year. In the Calgary census metropolitan area, there were 14,740 recipients, which represented a monthly decline of 330 people and an annual drop of 6,650 (31.2 per cent). In the Edmonton census metropolitan area, the number of regular EI beneficiaries was 17,500, which fell by 110 from September and was down 3,700 from a year ago (17.5 per cent).
“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.
“In particular, some of the declines in beneficiaries in October coincided with the expiring of a temporary EI measure that has been in effect for claims submitted from January 2015 to July 2017. This measure offered additional weeks of EI regular benefits in 15 EI economic regions that had experienced a sharp and sustained increase in unemployment. All eligible claimants were entitled to an additional five weeks of EI regular benefits, and long-tenured workers were granted up to an additional 20 weeks of benefits,” said StatsCan.
Across Canada, the number of regular EI beneficiaries fell for a third consecutive month, down 6,500 from September to 439,600 in October.
Compared with 12 months earlier, the number of EI beneficiaries decreased in all 10 broad occupational groups in October. The year-over-year drop was 70,650.
“The largest declines were among those whose last job was in manufacturing and utilities (-28.3 per cent). A year earlier, there was a relative high point in the number of beneficiaries for this occupational group, coinciding with temporary shutdowns in Ontario’s automotive industry,” said StatsCan.
“In October, there were 227,600 claims, down 9,200 or 3.9 per cent from September. The number of claims provides an indication of the number of people who could become beneficiaries. The number of claims decreased in every province: Nova Scotia (-7.8 per cent), Saskatchewan (-5.5 per cent), New Brunswick (-5.3 per cent), Alberta (-4.6 per cent), Quebec (-4.4 per cent), Prince Edward Island (-4.2 per cent), Manitoba (-4.1 per cent), British Columbia (-3.7 per cent), Newfoundland and Labrador (-3.1 per cent) and Ontario (-2.4 per cent). Compared with October 2017, the number of claims fell by 2.7 per cent at the national level.”
Mario Toneguzzi is a veteran Calgary-based journalist who worked for 35 years for the Calgary Herald, including 12 years as a senior business writer.
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