Those drawing regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in this country increased for the first time in eight months in July.
Figures released Thursday by Statistics Canada showed the number at 536,600 people receiving regular EI benefits, up 6,800, or 1.3%, from June. The agency says the increase reflects a reduction in the waiting period to receive EI benefits from two weeks to one week, effective January 1, 2017, which disproportionately affected occupations in educational services in July.
StatsCan goes onto say the reference week for July 2017 falls two weeks after the end of the school year for many school boards across Canada, and with the reduced waiting period, more beneficiaries in education were observed during that time than was the case in previous years.
Six out of the 10 provinces had more beneficiaries, led by Manitoba (up 11.8%), Prince Edward Island (+4.5%), New Brunswick (+2.3%), Ontario (+1.8%), Nova Scotia (+1.5%) and British Columbia (+1.5%). The number of beneficiaries was little changed in the remaining provinces, with the exception of Saskatchewan, where the number of beneficiaries went down 2.9%.
