Employment insurance beneficiaries hold steady: StatsCan

Western provinces experience slight increase

The number of Canadians receiving employment insurance benefits held steady in October, but has significantly dropped compared to last year.

According to Statistics Canada, the number of people who receive employment insurance (EI) benefits in October stayed about the same, at 510,000. That follows a dip in the number of beneficiaries in September.

Compared to October 2012, that number has dropped 8.4 percentage points.

British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan were the only provinces with significant increases compared to September, with New Brunswick as the lone province to experience a decrease.

Three main occupation groups saw increases in beneficiaries, with management leading the pack with a 2.6 per cent rise. Primary industries was up 1.3 per cent while trades, transport and equipment operators rose 1.2 per cent.

Increasingly more men aged 55 and up received EI benefits in October, up 4.9 per cent, while female beneficiaries between 15 and 24 went up 3.6 per cent.

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