There were fewer Canadians on the pogey during the last month of 2016, according to figures released Thursday morning by Statistics Canada.
The agency reported that 568,800 people received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits during December, down 3,200, or 0.6%, from the previous month.
The nation's number-crunchers declared that Saskatchewan recorded the largest decrease in beneficiaries in December among the provinces, at 3.6%. Smaller declines occurred in Quebec (-1.7%), British Columbia (-1.6%) and Prince Edward Island (-1.3%).
On the other side of the coin, Alberta continues to feel the bruises, recording 1.7% more EI recipients, while it was little changed in the other provinces.
The agency concludes that, in the 12 months to December, the number of EI beneficiaries in Canada was up by 23,100 or 4.2%, largely as a result of increases in Alberta.
