Highlights

From: Employment and Social Development Canada

Official title: Employment Insurance Monitoring and Assessment Report for the fiscal year beginning April 1, 2020 and ending March 31, 2021: Highlights

The Employment Insurance Monitoring and Assessment Report presents the analysis of the impact and effectiveness of the benefits and other assistance provided under the Employment Insurance Act. The reporting period is the fiscal year starting on April 1, 2020 and ending on March 31, 2021 (referred to as FY2021). The highlights below relate to this period or reflect changes between FY1920 and FY2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic had an unprecedented impact on the Canadian economy and labour market throughout FY2021.

• During the first months of the pandemic, the Canadian economy experienced its steepest output decline since quarterly data were first recorded in 1960. By April 2020, employment had declined by 3.0 million (-15.7%) compared with February 2020. In addition, the number of workers still employed, but working less than half their usual hours had increased by 2.5 million (+308.2%)
• The Canadian economy and labour market showed resiliency. Subsequent waves of COVID-19 brought volatility, but by the end of FY2021, the Canadian economy had partially recovered the output and employment losses due to the pandemic. In March 2021, real GDP and employment were still 1.9% and 1.6% below their pre-pandemic levels, respectively
• Some sectors, specifically those that were more affected by public health measures and for which teleworking was not an option suffered important output and employment losses. Other industries rebounded quickly and were experiencing robust output and employment growth towards the end of FY2021. These uneven impacts affected some groups more than others, such as youth, women and low-wage workers
• The pandemic led to significant movements in several labour market indicators. The average duration of unemployment spells, the share of long-term unemployed, the number of hours worked and wages were all severely impacted during the first 2 months of the pandemic. This brought significant changes to these figures compared to trends recorded over the past fiscal years. Although the labour market recovery brought those indicators closer to familiar levels, by the end of FY2021, they remained significantly affected 

On March 15, 2020, the Government implemented the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to provide income support to eligible employed and self-employed Canadians who stopped working due to COVID-19.

• No new claims for EI regular or sickness benefits were established during the weeks CERB was in effect. Claims for other EI special benefits, fishing benefits and Work-Sharing benefits could still be established
• Analysis of the CERB is not included in the Report

In fall 2020, the Government transitioned from the CERB to a simplified EI program. A set of EI temporary measures were introduced between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021, facilitating access to EI benefits, providing up to 50 weeks of regular benefits and a minimum benefit rate of $500 per week.

Both the number of new EI regular claims established and the total amount paid in EI regular benefits largely increased over the previous year.

• During the second half of FY2021 when EI regular benefits were available, 2.47 million new EI regular claims were established in Canada. This was almost double the number from the entire FY1920 (1.37 million)
• The total amount paid in EI regular benefits jumped to $24.9 billion in FY2021, compared to $11.1 billion in FY1920. This increase was mainly due to the higher number of regular claims and the temporary minimum benefit rate of $500 per week
• Proportionally more women and claimants aged 24 and under established regular claims in FY2021 than the previous year. This was primarily due to the lower number of hours of insurable employment required to qualify for EI benefits under the EI temporary measures in the second half of FY2021
• Under the current seasonal measure effective in 13 EI economic regions, a total of 106,500 claims by eligible seasonal claimants received additional weeks of EI regular benefits since the measure started in August 2018. On average, each of these claims received an additional $1,707 and 4.2 weeks of EI regular benefits. By the end of FY2021, a total of $181.8 million in additional benefits had been paid to these claimants. The seasonal pilot project has been extended until October 29, 2022

The eligibility rate for EI regular benefits increased from the previous year.

• Using a new data source due to the unavailability of the EI Coverage Survey, it was estimated that 90.7% of job separators had enough hours of insurable employment and were eligible to receive EI regular benefits during the second half of FY2021. This is an increase from the previous year’s rate of 73.6% (calculated using the same methodology)
• This increase can be explained by the historically high number of job separations following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and by the temporary measures facilitating access to EI benefits
• Women and individuals aged 24 and under experienced the highest increases in their eligibility rate

The Work-Sharing program played a key role in helping businesses and workers address COVID-19 related challenges and keep businesses open and employees on the job, ensuring a skilled and job-ready workforce as the economy recovers. The number of Work-Sharing agreements, new claims and total amount paid increased sharply due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the highest increase in the program’s history.

• Work-Sharing program participation increased with more than 4,200 (+1,135%) agreements started compared to 370 in the previous year. As a result, employers reported averting more than 60,000 layoffs with over 130,000 employees
• The number of claims from workers participating in a Work-sharing agreement increased to 82,991 (+750%). The total amount paid rose to $183.5 million (+1,100%) compared to $16.5 million last year

EI special benefits were available throughout FY2021, except for sickness benefits which resumed on September 27, 2020.

• The number of new claims established for EI special benefits was 671,260 in FY2021, similar to FY1920.  The total amount paid in EI special benefits rose to $6.7 billion in FY2021, from $6.2 billion in FY1920
• A slightly higher number of claims for sickness benefits (450,400) were established in the second half of FY2021 compared to the entire FY1920. This may be partly due to the epidemiological situation associated with the second wave of COVID-19 and the temporary measures facilitating access to EI benefits
• Since March 2019, parents who share parental benefits receive additional weeks of benefits. New data show that 21.1% of claimants for standard parental benefits and 25.4% of claimants for extended parental benefits shared weeks of parental benefits in FY2021

In FY2021, Labour Market Development Agreements (LMDAs) were an important support for workers and employers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• LMDAs supported more than 226,000 participants while they were out of work and receiving federal emergency income benefits (Canada Emergency Response Benefits or Canada Recovery Benefits), helping them to be ready with the skills needed to participate in the economic recovery. Over 155,000 Canadians returned to work following assistance funded through EI Part II
• Over $2.4 billion was invested to help those most affected, to enhance the capacity of service delivery organizations, and to improve labour market information. Almost $2.2 billion of the total was transferred to provinces and territories under LMDAs to respond to regional needs and opportunities
• Over 414,000 clients received Employment Benefits or Support Measures (EBSMs), of which over 394,000 were served by provinces and territories under the LMDAs and the remainder, by Indigenous organizations, through the Indigenous Skills and Employment Training (ISET) Program. Underrepresented groups were well supported by LMDA funded programs
• Provinces and territories were proactive, despite pandemic-imposed constraints, and successfully adapted their services and programs. Service staff were equipped and trained on virtual communications platforms to sustain service, while physical locations were closed, clients were supported in the switch from in-person to phone, mail and online service. Clients and staff were protected by added physical barriers and sanitization when service locations reopened
• The Government’s pan-Canadian programming addressed national challenges

In FY2021, Service Canada implemented a series of measures to further enhance its services for EI clients, while responding to the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Designed and implemented, within a short period of time, a service delivery model for the EI Emergency Response Benefit (EI ERB) 
• Enhanced communications with clients
  • Leveraged the eServiceCanada portal as replacement to the Service Canada Centres that were temporarily closed. This helped process an exceptionally high number of EI and EI ERB claims
  • Made services more accessible to vulnerable and remote populations by launching the Service Canada Outreach Support Centre, providing virtual information sessions, and worked to improve accessibility online and on site
• Call centre improvements
  • The Hosted Contact Centre Solution capacity was increased in response to heightened EI call volume
  • The system’s capacity for EI to handle calls in the Interactive Voice Response system was quadrupled
  • The system’s capacity to handle calls in the queue was doubled
  • Staffing capacity was increased from approximately 1,100 agents to 3,000 agents by the end of March 2021 
  • This all resulted in call centre agents being able to answer 5.6 million calls in FY2021, which is 1.2 million more calls than during last fiscal year 
• Use of technology
  • Artificial Intelligence
    • since June 2020, Service Canada has used artificial intelligence to support the review and interpretation of information added by employers in record of employment comment sections 
    • artificial intelligence has addressed over 1.25 million comments, successfully automating an additional 47.9% of records of employment 
  • Robotics Process Automation
    • this software solution helped complete repetitive and manual tasks, such as data entry, allowing officers to focus on tasks that are more complex 
  • New document upload functionality for EI clients
    • Launched in March 2021, this allowed clients to upload medical documents directly into their files
    • this new feature lessens the burden on claimants and reduces the need for manual intervention from Service Canada officers