Chapter 2: Impact and effectiveness of Employment Insurance benefits (Part I of the Employment Insurance Act)

In this section

• 2.1.1 Employment Insurance temporary measures
• 2.1.2 Employment Insurance benefits overview
• 2.1.3 Combined Employment Insurance claims
• 2.1.4 Benefits-to-Contributions ratios

This chapter of the Employment Insurance Monitoring and Assessment Report assesses income support provided by Employment Insurance (EI) Part I benefits: regular benefits, fishing benefits, Work-Sharing benefits and special benefits.

This chapter covers the period beginning April 1, 2021, and ending March 31, 2022 (FY2122). It uses "FY" with the last 2 digits of the specific year to indicate the fiscal year. For example, “FY2122" refers to the period starting on April 1, 2021 and ending on March 31, 2022.

This chapter includes several key indicators, such as the number of new claims established, total amount paid, level of benefits, maximum duration and actual duration of benefits as well as the exhaustion of benefits. Throughout the chapter, key EI program provisions and recent changes made to the EI program are discussed. Indicators related to level of claims and level of benefits are presented for claims established within the fiscal year for which at least 1 dollar in EI benefits was paid. Indicators such as maximum and actual duration are based on claims completed during the fiscal year for which at least 1 dollar was paid in EI benefits. Indicators related to the amount of EI benefits paid are presented on a cash basis, which means the expenses are accounted for during the fiscal year in which they are paid. More information on the definitions of the indicators presented throughout this chapter can be found in Annex 2.1 of this report.

This chapter relies on several sources of information to provide a comprehensive analysis of the EI program. EI administrative data, generally based on a 10% sample, underpins the majority of the analysis. Some sections of this chapter also make use of tax data provided by the Canada Revenue Agency related to T4 tax slips with employment income or T1 returns. Statistics Canada’s Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, as well as Records of Employment, provide the basis for analysis of coverage, eligibility and access to EI benefits for unemployed people. Throughout the chapter, results by sociodemographic characteristics are discussed and compared to previous years.

Annex 2 of the report presents additional statistical information on benefits analyzed in this chapter. Annex 7 provides an overview of major legislative changes to the EI program between April 1996 and December 2022.

2.1.1 Employment Insurance temporary measures

As a result of the economic and labour market disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government put in place different sets of EI temporary measures to facilitate access and ensure the EI program remained responsive to the needs of eligible workers.

A first set of EI temporary measures were introduced to facilitate access to EI benefits for all new claims established between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021. Table 1 lists these temporary measures and compares them to their associated original EI rules. The main ones were:

• a minimum unemployment rate of 13.1% applying to all EI economic regions across Canada
• a minimum of 120 hours of insurable employment during the qualifying period^{Footnote 1} to be eligible for EI benefits (due to the one-time hours credit, applicable to the first EI claim) regardless of the region of residence
• a minimum benefit rate of $500 per week, or $300 per week for extended parental benefits, and
• a maximum of 50 weeks of regular benefits^{Footnote 2}

As the Canadian economy recovered and the job market continued to improve, the Government introduced a second set of EI temporary measures for claims established between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022. Table 1 also lists these second temporary measures. The main ones were:

• a minimum of 420 hours of insurable employment during the qualifying period to be eligible for EI benefits regardless of the region of residence
• a simplified treatment of reasons for separation where all insurable hours and earnings counted towards eligibility and the calculation of the benefit rate, as long as the last job separation in the qualifying period was found to be valid
• a simplified treatment of monies on separation where these payments, such as severance pay and vacation pay, neither counted as earnings for EI benefits purposes nor affected the timing of a claimant’s receipt of EI benefits, and
• a minimum benefit rate of $300 per week, or $180 per week for extended parental benefits, for claims established between September 26, 2021 and November 20, 2021

New EI claims established during FY2122 were subject to different eligibility requirements, maximum entitlement and level of benefits depending on their establishment date. Consequently, some of the key indicators in this chapter are presented for 2 distinct periods:

• from April 1, 2021 to September 25, 2021, referred to as “the first half of FY2122”, during which new EI claims were established under the first set of EI temporary measures; and
• from September 26, 2021 to March 31, 2022, referred to as “the second half of FY2122”, during which new EI claims were established under the second set of EI temporary measures

Indicators related to the weekly benefit rate are, however, reported for 3 distinct periods in FY2122 (consult the section “Calculation of the benefit rate” below). Conversely, the results on amount of EI benefits paid cover the full period of FY2122 (from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022). Year-over-year comparisons are generally not reported, unlike reports from previous years.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government also moved quickly to implement temporary emergency and recovery benefits to provide income support to Canadian workers who were no longer employed or self-employed for reasons related to COVID-19. Those benefits were: the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB), the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB) and the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit (CWLB). These temporary income support benefits applied to specific circumstances and could not be claimed at the same time as EI benefits. That said, results on the income support provided to Canadian workers through any of the CERB, CRB, CRSB, CRCB and CWLB are not included in this chapter.

• ¹ Individuals in EI regions with an unemployment rate lower than 13.1% had their EI parameters calculated on the basis of the 13.1% rate, while those in regions with a higher rate had their parameters calculated using the actual higher rate. This temporary measure was supposed to end on September 11, 2021. The measure was extended to September 25, 2021 in Budget 2021.
• ² The hours credit measure was retroactive to March 15, 2020 for CERB claimants who were looking to switch to EI special benefits (except sickness benefits) or Work-Sharing benefits during the first half of FY2021, but couldn’t because they did not have enough hours.
• ³ When the temporary measures started on September 27, 2020, claimants were entitled to receive between 26 and 45 weeks of regular benefits. This was increased to 50 weeks in March 2021 and was applied retroactively to all regular claims established since September 27, 2020.
• ⁴ The waiting period was also waived for all EI claims established between September 27, 2020 and October 25, 2020; and for new EI sickness claims established between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021.
• ⁵ The qualifying period was extended by 16 weeks for EI claims established before July 5, 2020 and by 24 weeks for claims established on or after July 5, 2020 for claimants who received CERB and needed to transition to special benefits (except sickness benefits) or Work-Sharing benefits during the first half of FY2021.
• ⁶ For summer fishing claims established between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021. For winter fishing claims established between September 27, 2020 and December 18, 2021.
• ⁷ For summer fishing claims established between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022. For winter fishing claims established between December 19, 2021, and September 24, 2022.

2.1.2 Employment Insurance benefits overview

The Employment Insurance (EI) program provides temporary income support to partially replace employment income for eligible unemployed contributors to the program while they search for work or upgrade their skills, and for those who are absent from work due to specific life circumstances (such as sickness, pregnancy, providing care to a newborn or newly adopted child, providing care or support to a critically ill or injured person or someone needing end-of-life care).

In this chapter, EI benefits refer to regular benefits, special benefits, fishing benefits and Work-Sharing benefits (consult Table 2). Special benefits include maternity benefits, parental benefits, sickness benefits, family caregiver benefits for adults or children, and compassionate care benefits. Subsection 2.1.2 covers the number of new claims established in the fiscal year and total amount paid over the fiscal year, and provides information on benefit levels of claims. Subsection 2.1.3 examines combined (or mixed) benefit claims. Subsection 2.1.4 provides an analysis of the usage of EI benefits relative to EI premiums contributed.

• ¹ The hours credit measure was applicable to the first EI claim established between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021. It could be retroactive to March 15, 2020 for CERB claimants who were looking to switch to EI special benefits (except sickness benefits) or Work-Sharing benefits during the first half of FY2021, but couldn’t because they did not have enough hours.
• ² Temporary Work-Sharing special measures between March 15, 2020 and September 24, 2022.
• ³ Self-employed workers (other than fishers) who have opted into EI special benefits must meet an insurable earnings threshold for the calendar year preceding the claim. The threshold was $7,279 for claims established in 2020. It was temporarily set to $5,000 for claims established between January 3 and September 25, 2021. It was $5,289 for claims established between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022.
• ⁴ Benefits can be shared between eligible claimants (that is, parents or family members).

Total amount paid in Employment Insurance benefits

The amount paid for all types of EI benefits combined increased to $36.8 billion in FY2122 compared to $32.1 billion in FY2021. The amount paid climbed for all benefit types, except Work-Sharing benefits. The overall increase was mainly attributable to the EI temporary measures generally providing a higher weekly benefit rate to claims established between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021 (consult Section 2.1 and the box on the initial impacts of temporary EI measures in Canadian communities during the pandemic), as well as the high number of EI beneficiaries during FY2122.

The distribution of the amount paid by benefit type remained fairly unchanged compared to FY2021, but was still shifted from FY1920. EI regular benefits continued to account for more than 3 quarters (77.9%) of the total amount paid in EI benefits, compared to 63.1% in FY1920. Inversely, special benefits represented 20.9% of the total benefits paid in FY2122, as opposed to 35.1% in FY1920 (consult Chart 1).

Text description for chart 1

Benefit type	$ million	% share
Regular benefits	$28,622.1	77.9%
Work-Sharing benefits	$88.8	0.2%
Fishing benefits	$354.8	1.0%
Special benefits	$7,697.6	20.9%
Parental benefits	$3,589.9	9.8%
Sickness benefits	$2,461.9	6.7%
Maternity benefits	$1,474.7	4.0%
Compassionate care and Family caregiving benefits	$171.0	0.5%
Amount paid in Employment Insurance benefits	$36,763.2	100.0%

• * The total amount paid reported in Chart 1 does not correspond to the total reported in Tables 3 and 4 because data on compassionate care benefits and family caregiver benefits can only be reported on a 100% sampling basis on an aggregate level.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a sample of 10% of the EI administrative data, except for Work-Sharing, family caregiver and compassionate care benefits (100%).

Claimants in Ontario and Quebec continued to receive higher shares of the amount paid in EI benefits in FY2122, followed by those from Alberta and British Columbia. All provinces and territories recorded increases in benefits paid during the reporting year.

From a gender perspective, women accounted for 51.5% of the amount paid in EI benefits in FY2122, which represented a 2.1 percentage point increase compared to FY2021. In terms of age groups, the distribution of the amount paid in EI benefits remained stable compared to FY2021, with claimants aged between 25 and 44 years old continuing to account for the largest share of EI benefits paid.

Initial impacts of temporary Employment Insurance measures in Canadian communities during the pandemic

As presented in Section 2.1, different sets of EI temporary measures were introduced to facilitate access to EI benefits. Claims established between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021 were subject to the first set of measures. Those established between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022 were under the second set of measures. A departmental study* examined the initial impacts of the additional income support provided by the first set of EI temporary measures compared to what would have been provided under the original EI rules. The study covered the period from September 27, 2020 to April 3, 2021, which is virtually identical to the second half of FY2021. Since different sets of EI temporary measures were in effect until September 24, 2022, the study did not cover the entire period of the measures.

As part of the first set of EI temporary measures, claimants could receive an increased benefit rate in 1 of 2 ways; either from a minimum $500 weekly benefit rate or, because the benefit rate was calculated based on their best 14 weeks of earnings. Among claims established during the study period, 65.6% of regular claims and 57.2% of special benefit claims had a higher weekly benefit rate than what they would have been entitled to without the temporary measures.

Among claimants who benefitted from the minimum weekly benefit rate of $500,** they received, on average, an additional $199 per week for regular claims and $167 per week for special benefit claims.*** Among claims with a weekly benefit rate above $500 also benefitting from a higher benefit rate, claimants received, on average, an additional $56 per week for regular claims and $34 per week for special benefit claims.

• * ESDC, Initial impacts of temporary Employment Insurance measures in Canadian communities during the pandemic (Ottawa: ESDC, Employment Insurance Policy Directorate, 2022).
• ** Minimum $300 weekly benefit rate for extended parental benefits.
• *** The additional weekly benefit rate for claims of extended parental benefits is calculated using the 55% replacement rate in order to reflect the cost on the same scale than other EI benefit types.

2.1.3 Combined Employment Insurance claims

Under certain provisions of the EI program, a claimant may receive multiple types of benefits as part of a single claim, assuming that the claimant meets each benefit type’s eligibility requirements.^{Footnote 10} A “pure” claim is one in which an EI claimant receives a single benefit type, while a “combined” claim is one in which the claimant receives more than 1 benefit type. The combination of EI benefit types in a single claim is examined using claims completed in FY2122, regardless of the year in which the claim was established. Pure claims represented 85.8% of all completed claims in FY2122 (consult Table 5).

• Note: Data may not add up to the total due to rounding. Includes completed claims for which at least $1 of EI benefits was paid. The sum of claims by benefit type for the “Total claims” and “Combined claims” columns does not add up to the total because more than 1 benefit type can be part of the same claim. This does not apply to pure claims that include only 1 benefit type.
• *Parental benefits include benefits for biological parents and adoptive parents.
• ** The total number of claims is based on claims completed during the fiscal year. This explains why the total number of claims here is different from the total numbers of claims in Tables 3 and 4 which are based on established claims.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

Women were more likely to claim more than 1 type of EI benefit (20.0%) than men (8.9%), mostly due to their high probability of claiming both maternity and parental benefits.

In fact, maternity benefits were the benefits most often combined with other types of benefits, usually parental benefits. However, a significant proportion also claimed sickness benefits with maternity benefits (11.1%), resulting in the claimant starting her leave before becoming eligible for maternity benefits (available 12 weeks prior to the child’s expected date of birth). The combination of sickness, maternity and parental benefits was the most common among claims with 3 or more benefit types (17,680 claims representing 9.7% of completed claims for maternity benefits in FY2122).

Claims for parental benefits were combined at a slightly lower rate than maternity, as only 13.5% of men who claimed parental also received another benefit payment. Of those male claimants, 80.0% received regular benefits and 22.0% claimed sickness benefits. Among women, virtually all (99.2%) who combined parental benefits with other types of benefits combined them with maternity benefits.

Sickness benefits were the third most likely to be combined with other benefit types, mostly with regular benefits. Men combined their sickness benefits predominantly with regular benefits (95.0%), while sickness claims from women were most often combined with regular (85.7%), maternity (12.3%) and parental benefits (11.1%). Sickness also represented the greatest share of combined regular claims.

When combined, compassionate care benefits are shared with sickness benefits (66.2%) or regular benefits (46.0%). Men tended to combine compassionate care benefits with regular benefits (54.4%) more often than women (42.9%). Women were most likely to combine compassionate care benefits with sickness benefits (68.9%) compared to men (58.9%).

Similarly to compassionate care benefits, family caregiver benefits for children were most often combined with regular benefits by men (62.5%), while women were more likely to combine them with sickness benefits (64.8%). Conversely, when family caregiver benefits for adults were combined, both men and women most often received them with regular benefits (77.4% and 62.8%, respectively).

Over a third of all Work-Sharing claims were combined with other benefit types (35.9%), predominantly regular benefits. This is attributable to the fact that both benefit types are typically used during a downturn in business activity, which increases the risk of layoffs (Work-Sharing benefits) and actual layoffs (regular benefits). Regular benefits are usually claimed following Work-Sharing benefits, reflecting a continued downturn in a participating firm’s activity that eventually leads to a downsizing of the firm’s labour force.

While it is possible for fishers to combine fishing benefits with other benefit types (under some restrictions), 12.5% of fishing claims were combined claims. Of those claims, 90.0% were combined with sickness benefits. No fishing claims were shared with maternity, parental, compassionate care or Work-Sharing benefits during the reporting period.

Trends in combined claims are relatively stable over time. However, in FY2122, the proportion of claims combining Work-Sharing benefits with other benefit types increased compared to the previous fiscal year (consult Chart 2). These claims were mostly combined with regular benefits. However, compared to FY2021, a higher share of them were also combined with sickness benefits.

Text description for chart 2

Benefit type	FY2021	FY2122
Regular	15.1%	10.9%
Fishing	13.5%	12.5%
Work-Sharing	17.2%	35.9%
Maternity	98.7%	97.8%
Parental	78.8%	74.1%
Sickness	56.4%	50.2%
Compassionate care	41.3%	41.8%
Family caregiver for children	25.7%	26.2%
Family caregiver for adults	35.1%	38.3%
All claims	20.2%	14.2%

• Note: Includes completed claims for which at least $1 of EI benefits was paid.
• * Starting in FY2021, data on family caregiver benefits are included in the analysis on combined claims. They were previously excluded due to the incompatibility of administrative data sources.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

2.1.4 Benefits-to-Contributions ratios

The EI benefits paid to eligible claimants are financed solely by the mandatory contributions (EI premiums) made by employers, employees and the self-employed who have opted into the EI program. The amount of EI benefits paid relative to the contributions made provides useful insights into the usage of the program, especially when the claimants are analyzed by their socio-demographic characteristics. This subsection examines this using 2 different ratios: the total benefits-to-contributions ratio (total B/C ratio) and the regular benefits-to-contributions ratio (regular B/C ratio) for 2020.^{Footnote 11} As EI contributions are not assigned to specific benefit types, the regular B/C ratio accounts for reductions in EI contributions related to special benefits.^{Footnote 12}

The total B/C ratios and the regular B/C ratios presented below are normalized, with the ratio for Canada set at 1.0. Consequently, the adjusted total and regular B/C ratios provide a quick interpretation on the net usage of the EI program by socio-demographic characteristic relative to the national level. An adjusted ratio higher than 1.0 means that the underlying sub-population (such as region or industry) received comparatively more benefits than contributions made than the Canadian average, and is a net beneficiary of the EI program. On the other hand, an adjusted ratio lower than 1.0 means that the representing sub-population received comparatively less benefits than contributions made relative to the national level, and is a net contributor.

In 2020, the Atlantic provinces and Quebec had adjusted total B/C ratios above the national average, meaning claimants from these provinces received comparatively more in EI benefits than the contributions made to the EI program (consult Chart 3). This is in line with previous years, as regions with larger share of seasonal claimants tend to record a greater use of EI benefits by claimants in these regions compared with other regions.^{Footnote 13} On the other hand, Ontario, British Columbia and the 3 territories had ratios below the national average, as claimants in these regions received comparatively less in EI benefits than the contributions made to the program. Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta had ratios very close to the national level.

Results were similar when excluding payments for EI special benefits. In 2020, the Atlantic provinces, Quebec and Alberta had adjusted regular B/C ratios above the national average. Conversely, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia and the 3 territories had ratios below the national average. Saskatchewan had a ratio at the national level.

Text description for chart 3

Province or territory	Adjusted total benefits-to-contributions ratio (left scale)	Adjusted regular benefits-to-contributions ratio (left scale)	Adjusted total benefits-to-contributions ratio for Canada (1.0) (left scale)	Unemployment rate (right scale)
Newfoundland and Labrador	3.46	4.14	1.0	14.1%
Prince Edward Island	2.58	2.47	1.0	10.4%
Nova Scotia	1.56	1.69	1.0	9.8%
New Brunswick	2.13	2.33	1.0	10.1%
Quebec	1.10	1.07	1.0	8.9%
Ontario	0.82	0.79	1.0	9.6%
Manitoba	0.96	0.92	1.0	8.0%
Saskatchewan	1.01	1.00	1.0	8.4%
Alberta	1.05	1.08	1.0	11.5%
British Columbia	0.81	0.78	1.0	9.0%
Yukon	0.75	0.74	1.0	5.4%
Northwest Territories	0.67	0.67	1.0	8.3%
Nunavut	0.49	0.45	1.0	14.2%

• *Average of monthly unemployment rates, seasonally unadjusted.
• Sources: Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), T4 slips with employment income (for data on contributions); Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data (for data on benefits); and Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, Tables 14-10-0287-01 and 14-10-0292-01 (for data on unemployment rates). CRA data are based on a 10% sample of T4 slips with employment income, and ESDC data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

Table 6 outlines that, as in the past, women had a higher adjusted total B/C ratio (1.09) than men (0.93) in 2020. This is due to women aged 44 years and under who received approximately $1.36 in EI benefits for each dollar contributed in premiums in 2020. This may be attributed to the fact that women in this age group are more likely to receive EI maternity and/or parental benefits. Trends were reversed when only EI regular benefits were considered, as men showed a higher adjusted regular B/C ratio (1.14) than women (0.83), across all age groups.

Unlike 2018 and 2019, claimants aged 24 years and younger had both adjusted B/C ratios above 1.0 in 2020, and thus were net beneficiaries. They also received the highest level of EI benefits relative to their contributions when compared to claimants in the other age groups. This could be explained by the EI temporary measures introduced on September 27, 2020 that facilitate access to EI benefits.

• Sources: Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), T4 slips with employment income (for data on contributions); Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data (for data on benefits). CRA data are based on a 10% sample of T4 slips with employment income, and ESDC data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

Chart 4 illustrates that in 2020, overall, claimants working in the goods-producing industries were net beneficiaries of the EI program, while those working in the services-producing industries were net contributors. This may be due to the larger proportion of seasonal employment in the good-producing industries, notably the Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting industry and the Construction industry. As seasonal employment fluctuates during certain periods of the year, workers employed in these industries generally rely on EI benefits during the “off-seasons”, leading to higher adjusted regular B/C ratios. These 2 industries continued to exhibit high adjusted regular B/C ratios in 2020.

Text description for chart 4

Industry	Adjusted regular benefits-to-contributions ratio	Adjusted total benefits-to-contributions ratio
Goods-producing industries	1.62	1.40
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting	2.62	3.05
Mining and oil and gas extraction	1.30	1.06
Utilities	0.30	0.37
Construction	2.65	2.01
Manufacturing	0.96	0.90
Services-producing industries	0.81	0.87
Wholesale trade	0.73	0.71
Retail trade	0.95	0.96
Transportation and warehousing	0.97	0.88
Finance and insurance	0.23	0.42
Real estate and rental and leasing	1.10	0.99
Professional, scientific and technical services	0.64	0.67
Business, building and other support services*	1.44	1.29
Educational services	0.41	0.60
Health care and social assistance	0.39	0.74
Information, culture and recreation**	1.33	1.17
Accommodation and food services	3.90	3.11
Other services (except public administration)	1.34	1.24
Public administration	0.33	0.52
Canada	1.00	1.00

• * This industry sector comprises the industries with codes 55 (Management of companies and enterprises) and 56 (Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services).
• ** This industry sector comprises the industries with codes 51 (Information and cultural industries) and 71 (Arts, entertainment and recreation).
• Sources: Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), T4 slips with employment income (for data on contributions); Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data (for data on benefits). CRA data are based on a 10% sample of T4 slips with employment income, and ESDC data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

Several services-producing industries, notably the Information, culture and recreation industry^{Footnote 14} and the Accommodation and food services industry, had higher adjusted regular B/C ratios in 2020 than the previous year. This may be attributed to market disruptions and economic shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 restrictions, which had a significant impact on both of these industries.

For the adjusted total B/C ratio, the difference between the goods-producing industries and the services-producing industries is less significant. This may partly be due to the larger proportion of women working in certain services-producing industries, such as the Health care and social assistance industry and the Educational services industry. Women can claim EI maternity and/or parental benefits and thus increase the relative use of EI in these industries.

In this section

• 2.2.1 Employment Insurance regular claims and benefits paid
• 2.2.2 Coverage and eligibility to Employment Insurance regular benefits for the unemployed population
• 2.2.3 Level of Employment Insurance regular benefits
• 2.2.4 Employment Insurance regular benefit entitlement
• 2.2.5 Employment Insurance regular benefits and seasonal claimants
• 2.2.6 Exhaustion of Employment Insurance regular benefits
• 2.2.7 Working while on claim

Employment Insurance (EI) regular benefits are designed to provide temporary income support to partially replace lost employment income for eligible claimants while they search for work or upgrade their skills.

In general, to qualify for EI regular benefits, the claimant must:

• be unemployed and available for work
• have worked a minimum number of hours of insurable employment (ranging from 420 to 700 hours, depending on the regional unemployment rate where the claimant lived at the time of the claim)
• have paid EI premiums during the qualifying period (defined as either the previous 52 weeks or since the establishment of their last claim, whichever is shorter), and
• have had a valid reason for job separation according to the Employment Insurance Act

As explained in Section 2.1, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, different sets of EI temporary measures were introduced. New EI claims established between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021 were subject to the first set of EI temporary measures. New claims established between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022 were under the second set of EI temporary measures.

For claims established under the first set of EI temporary measures, to qualify for EI regular benefits, the claimant must:

• be unemployed and available for work
• have worked a minimum number of 120 hours of insurable employment (including the one-time credit of 300 hours)
• have paid EI premiums during the qualifying period (defined as either the previous 52 weeks (or 80 weeks for claimants who received CERB) or since the establishment of their last claim, whichever is shorter), and
• have had a valid reason for job separation according to the Employment Insurance Act (some measures simplifying the treatment of reasons for separation were in place (consult Section 2.1))

For claims established under the second set of EI temporary measures, to qualify for EI regular benefits, the claimant must:

• be unemployed and available for work
• have worked a minimum number of 420 hours of insurable employment
• have paid EI premiums during the qualifying period (defined as either the previous 52 weeks or since the establishment of their last claim, whichever is shorter), and
• have had a valid reason for job separation according to the Employment Insurance Act (some measures simplifying the treatment of reasons for separation were in place (consult Section 2.1))

In addition to meeting these eligibility criteria, claimants must also be available for work and actively seeking suitable employment while claiming regular benefits.^{Footnote 15}

As a result of the different EI temporary measures in place during the reporting period, some of the main indicators covered in the following subsections are presented separately for the first and the second half of FY2122.^{Footnote 16} For example, given that the eligibility criteria to qualify for EI regular benefits were different, the number of claims established is presented for each period of FY2122. Conversely, the results on amount paid cover the full fiscal year.

2.2.1 Employment Insurance regular claims and benefits paid

The number of EI regular claims established in FY2122 was 1.46 million. Among these claims, 525,250 claims were established during the first half of the fiscal year, while 932,500 claims were established during the second half. The volume of claims established in the entire FY2122 was slightly higher than pre-pandemic levels (1.32 million claims yearly, on average, from FY1718 to FY1920). However, it was lower than the 2.47 million regular claims established during the second half of FY2021.^{Footnote 17} Given the unprecedented labour market conditions at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the different sets of EI temporary measures in place in FY2021 and FY2122, year-over-year comparisons of the number of EI regular claims established are not examined in this section.

The number of new claims established during a given period tends to be influenced by labour market conditions and overall economic cycles, as well as initiatives such as EI pilot projects or changes to the program design. During periods of economic growth and robust labour market conditions, it is expected that fewer claims for EI regular benefits are established, while the opposite would be true during periods of economic stagnation and unfavourable labour market conditions. As discussed in Chapter 1, Canada’s economy had largely recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic in FY2122. Employment rose by 6.6% compared to FY2021 and had returned to its pre-pandemic level. Simultaneously, the unemployment rate dropped from 10.2% on average in FY2021 to 6.8% in FY2122. The overall favourable economic developments and tighter labour market conditions compared to FY2021 contributed to a decrease in the volume of new claims established for EI regular benefits in FY2122.

The total amount of EI regular benefits paid increased from $24.9 billion in FY2021 to $28.6 billion in FY2122. It was $11.1 billion in FY1920. The total amount of EI regular benefits paid in FY2122 was higher than in FY2021, despite the decrease in the number of claims established during the same period. This is attributable to the high number of EI regular beneficiaries in FY2122, notably those who established their claim in FY2021 and continued to receive benefits in FY2122, as well as the EI temporary measures (consult Section 2.1).

There was an average of 1.1 million beneficiaries receiving EI regular benefits each month in FY2122. This is lower than the average 1.5 million beneficiaries per month observed in the second half of FY2021, but significantly higher than the average 459,900 monthly EI regular beneficiaries in FY1920.^{Footnote 18}

Because the number of beneficiaries is based on previously established claims, these 2 measures generally trend in the same direction, with the count of beneficiaries usually lagging behind the number of new claims established. For example, an increase in the number of claims established for EI regular benefits after an economic shock would result in an increase in the number of beneficiaries following the increase in claims. However, the count of beneficiaries can still remain elevated even after the volume of new claims has subsided once the labour market conditions improve, as payments continue to be made on previously established claims until benefits are exhausted or the claimants have found employment. The effect of the sharp increase in the number of regular claims established in the second half of FY2021 likely continued to be reflected on the number of beneficiaries in FY2122.

Employment Insurance regular claims by hours of insurable employment and unemployment rate in the Employment Insurance economic region of establishment

Usually, claimants must have worked a minimum number of hours of insurable employment ranging from 420 and 700 hours to qualify for EI regular benefits. The number of required hours depends on the unemployment rate in the EI economic region at the time of submitting the application for EI and is known as the Variable Entrance Requirement (VER). The higher the unemployment rate in a given region, the lower the number of hours needed to qualify for EI regular benefits (consult Annex 2.2 for the full breakdown). A detailed discussion on the eligibility and access to EI regular benefits is provided in subsection 2.2.2.

However, the different sets of EI temporary measures that were in place in FY2122 set a fixed minimum number of hours of insurable employment required to qualify for EI regular benefits regardless of the region of residence. The minimum was 120 hours of insurable employment (including the one-time credit of 300 hours) under the first temporary measures in place in the first half of FY2122, and 420 hours of insurable employment under the second temporary measures implemented in the second half of FY2122. In addition, under the first set of EI temporary measures, a minimum unemployment rate of 13.1% was applied to all regions across Canada during the first half of FY2122. When the second set of EI temporary measures were in place during the second half of FY2122, EI monthly regional unemployment rates resumed.

Chart 5 illustrates the distribution of EI regular claims by the number of hours of insurable employment that were used to qualify for EI regular benefits in the second half of FY2122.^{Footnote 23} During this period, EI regular benefit claimants who accumulated 1,820 hours or more of insurable employment during their qualifying period accounted for the largest share (19.4%) of total EI regular claims established. Conversely, claimants who accumulated between 420 and 699 hours accounted for the smallest share (14.3%). However, all of the groupings showed a relatively close number of claims during the reporting period.

Text description for chart 5

Hours of insurable employment	Share of claims (percent of total)	Number of claims
420 to 699 hours	14.3%	133,110
700 to 979 hours	16.7%	156,100
980 to 1,259 hours	18.0%	167,470
1,260 to 1,539 hours	17.3%	161,620
1,540 to 1,819 hours	14.3%	133,120
1,820 hours and more	19.4%	181,080

• Note: Data may not add up to the total due to rounding. Includes claims for which at least $1 of EI regular benefits was paid.
• * During this period, a minimum of 420 hours of insurable employment was required to qualify for regular benefits, regardless of the regional unemployment rate.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

Table 11 outlines the number and distribution of EI regular claims established in the second half of FY2122, as well as the labour force and the unemployed population by regional unemployment rate.

In general, the distribution of EI regular claims across regional unemployment rate during the second half of FY2122 is relatively similar to the distribution of unemployed individuals from the Labour Force Survey. In the second half of FY2122, EI economic regions with a rate of unemployment at 7% and lower accounted for around half (53.3%) of all EI regular claims established, 59.1% of the total labour force and 48.4% of the total unemployed population. Regions with a rate of unemployment above 13% during the second half of FY2122 had 10.8% of all EI regular claims, whereas they represented 2.6% of the labour force and 6.8% of the total unemployed population.

Table 11 – Number and share of Employment Insurance regular claims by regional unemployment rate*, Canada, second half of FY2122

Unemployment rate	Employment Insurance regular claims established (in thousands) (% share of total claims) Second half of FY2122	Labour force (in thousands) (% share of labour force) Second half of FY2122	Number of unemployed (in thousands) (% share of unemployed) Second half of FY2122
0.1% to 6%	242.2 (26.0%)	6,711.4 (32.3%)	329.4 (23.6%)
6.1% to 7%	254.3 (27.3%)	5,562.6 (26.8%)	347.3 (24.8%)
7.1% to 8%	162.8 (17.5%)	4,128.7 (19.9%)	303.6 (21.7%)
8.1% to 9%	119.9 (12.9%)	3,369.8 (16.2%)	277.8 (19.9%)
9.1% to 10%	18.3 (2.0%)	216.2 (1.0%)	17.9 (1.3%)
10.1% to 11%	2.3 (0.2%)	37.5 (0.2%)	4.1 (0.3%)
11.1% to 12%	6.0 (0.6%)	30.6 (0.1%)	3.2 (0.2%)
12.1% to 13%	25.7 (2.8%)	158.1 (0.8%)	19.6 (1.4%)
13.1% to 14%	40.4 (4.3%)	174.0 (0.8%)	24.0 (1.7%)
14.1% to 15%	7.4 (0.8%)	48.1 (0.2%)	6.7 (0.5%)
15.1% to 16%	2.6 (0.3%)	22.1 (0.1%)	3.5 (0.3%)
16% or higher	50.8 (5.4%)	305.4 (1.5%)	60.5 (4.3%)
Canada	932.5 (100.0%)	20,764.4 (100.0%)	1,397.6 (100.0%)

• Note: Data may not add up to the total due to rounding. Includes claims for which at least $1 of EI regular benefits was paid.
• * Unemployment rates used for the Employment Insurance program are a moving average of seasonally adjusted rates of unemployment produced by Statistics Canada, as per section 17 of the Employment Insurance Regulations.
• Sources: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data and Statistics Canada, special tabulations from the Labour Force Survey. EI data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

2.2.2 Coverage and eligibility to Employment Insurance regular benefits for the unemployed population

As mentioned at the beginning of Section 2.2, there are 3 eligibility criteria to qualify for EI regular benefits:

• the claimant must have had insurable employment and paid EI premiums during the qualifying period (defined as either the previous 52 weeks or since the establishment of their last claim, whichever is shorter)
  • between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021, the qualifying period was extended by 28 weeks for claimants who met certain criteria^{Footnote 24}
• have a valid reason for job separation according to the Employment Insurance Act
  • between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021, and between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022, different measures simplifying the treatment of reasons for separation were introduced (consult Section 2.1)
• have worked a minimum number of hours of insurable employment (ranging from 420 hours and 700 hours, depending on the regional unemployment rate where the claimant lived at the time of the establishment of the claim) during the qualifying period
  • between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021, a minimum of 120 hours of insurable employment was required regardless of the region of residence^{Footnote 25}
  • between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022, a minimum of 420 hours of insurable employment was required regardless of the region of residence

This subsection provides an overview of the unemployed population in Canada for 2021 in terms of these 3 eligibility criteria. Most estimates on the unemployed population provided in this subsection are based on results from the Employment Insurance Coverage Survey (EICS),^{Footnote 26} published annually by Statistics Canada. The survey provides statistics on the contributors and non-contributors to the EI program among the unemployed population in the calendar year, as well as on the eligible recipients and those who did not qualify for EI regular benefits. The survey also provides information on the take-up of EI maternity and parental benefits in Canada (consult subsection 2.6.2).

Estimates on the unemployment population eligible to EI regular benefits, that is the eligibility rates, are based on the Records of Employment (ROE). As the eligibility criteria to qualify for EI regular benefits changed during the course of FY2122 (for instance, the minimum 120 hours of insurable employment during the first half of FY2122 and 420 hours of insurable employment during the second half of FY2122), the results are incomparable and are presented separately for the 2 periods of FY2122.

This subsection generally presents results on access to EI regular benefits measured by 2 ratios: the Beneficiary-to-Unemployed (B/U) ratio and the Beneficiary-to-Unemployed Contributor (B/UC) ratio. The ratios’ numerator (B) and denominators (U and UC) are usually calculated using 2 separate data sources. With the economic condition prevailing in 2021 and the temporary changes to the EI program that were in place, numerator data were significantly affected. This resulted in incoherent calculated ratios for 2021. Consequently, these ratios are not reported for the period.

Chart 6 illustrates the distribution of the unemployed population in Canada in 2021 in terms of their eligibility criteria for EI regular benefits. On average, there were 1,343,100 unemployed individuals per month in Canada in 2021. Of them, 389,800 (29.0%) individuals did not pay EI premiums during the year because they did not work in the previous 12 months or never worked, or because they were self-employed or unpaid family workers. The other 953,300 (71.0%) unemployed individuals had paid EI premiums in the 12 months prior to becoming unemployed in 2021, and thus were covered by the EI program.

Of the total unemployed population, 21,000 (1.6%) individuals were ineligible for EI benefits as they had invalid reasons for job separation, although they had paid EI premiums. Of these individuals, some quit their jobs to go to school while others quit for other reasons. This number is likely underestimated in EICS 2021 as it represented 12.0% to 15.8% of the unemployed population in past EICS 2017 to 2019. The underestimation is partly due to the method used in the EICS 2021 to classify unemployed individuals who received either the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) or the Canada Recovery Benefits (CRB) into the different categories (consult the box on Employment Insurance Coverage Survey (EICS) 2021: methodological considerations). The remaining 932,300 unemployed individuals (69.4% of total unemployed) had paid EI premiums and had a valid reason for job separation. However, some of them (2.9% of total unemployed) did not accumulate enough hours of insurable employment during their qualifying period. The rest (66.6% of total unemployed) had enough hours of insurable employment during their qualifying period and were eligible for EI regular benefits, as they had met all 3 eligibility criteria of the EI program.

While the majority of the unemployed population eligible for EI regular benefits with enough hours of insurable employment had received EI regular benefits at the time they were surveyed in 2021, 254,200 (19.0% of total unemployed) were not receiving them even though they were eligible (consult Chart 6). This was due to one of the following reasons:

• their benefits were temporarily interrupted or they were waiting to receive benefits
• they did not claim or receive benefits for unknown reasons
• they had exhausted benefits in the past 12 months, or
• they were receiving non-regular EI benefits

Text description for chart 6

(U) Total Unemployed: 1,343,100* (100%)	Description
(A) Unemployed individuals who did not pay EI premiums: 389,800 (29.0%)	A1 - Individuals who did not work in the previous 12 months or never worked: 339,000 (25.2%) A2 - Individuals who were self-employed or unpaid family workers: 50,800 (3.8%)
(B) EI Premium-paying unemployed individuals with invalid reasons for job separation: 21,000* (1.6%)	B1 - Individuals who quit without a just cause: 9,000 (0.7%) B2 - Individuals who quit to go to school: 12,000 (0.9%)
(C) Potentially eligible unemployed individuals but insufficient hours of insurable employment: 38,300* (2.9%)	C1 - Individuals who did not have sufficient hours of insurable employment: 38,300 (2.9%)
(D) Unemployed individuals eligible for EI regular benefits with enough hours of insurable employment: 894,000 (66.6%)	D1 - Individuals who received EI regular benefits: 639,800 (47.6%) D2 - Benefits temporarily interrupted or waiting to receive benefits: 42,700 (3.2%) D3 - Individuals who did not claim or receive benefits for unknown reasons: 47,600 (3.5%) D4 - Individuals who exhausted EI benefits in the past 12 months: 153,800 (11.5%) D5 - Individuals who received non-regular EI benefits: 10,100 (0.8%)

• Note: Data may not add up to the total due to rounding.
• ** Estimates for the year are based on monthly averages.
• * The total unemployed population in Chart 6 is underestimated by 27,400. Consult the text box “Employment Insurance Coverage Survey 2021: methodological considerations” for details.
• Source: Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, 2021.

Chart 7 shows how the breakdown of the unemployed population according to their eligibility for EI regular benefits in 2021 changed noticeably compared to previous years’ breakdowns.

The most striking change is the share of unemployed individuals who meet all 3 eligibility criteria for EI regular benefits; it increased from 39.0% in 2019 to 66.6% in 2021. This could mainly be explained by the lower number of hours of insurable employment required to qualify for regular benefits due to the EI temporary measures (consult Section 2.1) that aimed to ease access to EI regular benefits in face of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, over the pandemic period, subsequent closures and reopenings of businesses accompanying the waves of COVID-19 cases allowed unemployed workers to accumulate hours of insurable employment between unemployment spells. This also leads to a decrease in unemployed individuals who did not work in the previous 12 months or never worked. As a result, the share of unemployed individuals who did not pay premiums decreased from 38.5% in 2019 to 29.0% in 2021. Due to the same reasons, the share of unemployed individuals with insufficient hours of insurable employment shrank significantly from 8.3% in 2019 to 2.9% in 2021.

Text description for chart 7

Category	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020*	2021
(A) Unemployed individuals who did not pay premiums	29.7%	35.3%	35.5%	38.3%	37.5%	39.0%	34.7%	34.7%	37.0%	36.1%	38.5%	not available	29.0%
(B) EI premium-paying unemployed individuals with an invalid reason for job separation	12.5%	11.8%	12.7%	13.7%	14.9%	14.9%	12.4%	11.9%	12.0%	15.8%	14.2%	not available	1.6%
(C) Potentially eligible unemployed individuals but with insufficient hours of insurable employment	8.0%	8.5%	11.2%	8.7%	6.7%	7.8%	9.1%	7.8%	8.0%	6.1%	8.3%	not available	2.9%
(D) Unemployed individuals eligible for EI regular benefits with enough hours of insurable employment	49.8%	44.4%	40.5%	39.3%	40.8%	38.3%	43.8%	45.6%	43.0%	42.1%	39.0%	not available	66.6%

• ** Estimates for the year are based on monthly averages.
• * Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the collection of EI regular benefits was suspended in the EICS 2020.
• Source: Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, 2009 to 2021.

Coverage of Employment Insurance regular benefits

The coverage rate of EI regular benefits shows the proportion of unemployed individuals who contributed to the EI program by paying EI premiums in the preceding 52 weeks prior to becoming unemployed. Thus, the coverage rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed individuals who had insurable employment and paid EI premiums within the previous 52 weeks by the number of total unemployed individuals in Canada. In 2021, the coverage rate was 71.0%, 9.5 percentage points higher than what was observed in 2019 (61.5%).^{Footnote 27}

Higher coverage rates of EI regular benefits are usually observed during economic downturns, as slowing economic activities lead to layoffs that increase the share of unemployed EI contributors among all unemployed individuals. For example, the coverage rates in the past decade peaked in 2009, corresponding to the FY0809 recession, and in 2015 and 2016, during the downturn in commodity prices. The higher coverage rate observed in 2021 can be partially explained by the increase of unemployed EI contributors following the COVID-19 pandemic and economic impacts from subsequent public measures (consult Chart 8).

Text description for chart 8

Year	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020*	2021**
Coverage rate of Employment Insurance regular benefits	70.3%	64.7%	64.5%	61.7%	62.5%	61.0%	65.3%	65.3%	63.0%	63.9%	61.5%	not available	71.0%

• * Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the collection of EI regular benefits was suspended in the EICS 2020.
• ** In the EICS 2021, the total unemployed population is underestimated by 27,400. This probably affects the results on the coverage rate. Consult the box “Employment Insurance Coverage Survey (EICS) 2021: methodological considerations” for details.
• Source: Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, 2009 to 2021.

Table 13 outlines the coverage rates of EI regular benefits in 2021 by province, gender, age, and previous work patterns. Among all provinces, Prince Edward Island had the highest coverage rate in 2021. Similarly, Ontario had the lowest coverage rate among all provinces in 2021. Consistent to the historical pattern, the Atlantic provinces have higher coverage rates than the rest of the country. This may be explained by the composition of unemployed individuals, such as the prevalence of the seasonal employment pattern in that region.^{Footnote 28}

Table 13 – Employment Insurance regular benefits coverage rates for the unemployed population by province, gender, age, and previous work patterns, Canada, 2019 and 2021

Category	2019	2021
Newfoundland and Labrador	77.7%	78.9%
Prince Edward Island	81.8%	94.2%
Nova Scotia	73.7%	83.9%
New Brunswick	76.1%	86.5%
Quebec	63.9%	76.5%
Ontario	57.9%	63.8%
Manitoba	59.5%	73.8%
Saskatchewan	58.0%	76.6%
Alberta	61.6%	74.8%
British Columbia	58.5%	72.0%
Men	62.8%	71.6%
Women	59.9%	70.1%
24 years old and under	57.9%	54.9%
25 to 44 years old	59.4%	73.2%
45 years old and over	65.6%	75.9%
Permanent*	67.6%	82.1%
Full-time	66.1%	82.7%
Part-time	72.7%	82.6%
Non-permanent*	79.4%	83.2%
Seasonal**	88.2%	88.1%
Other non-standard***	72.8%	80.3%
Canada	61.5%	71.0%

• * The coverage rates of unemployed individuals for most of the work pattern categories are higher than the national average. This can be explained by the 0% coverage rate of unemployed individuals for whom a previous work pattern is not applicable because they never worked before. The national average is lower because these individuals are included.
• ** Seasonal employment is temporary work that is expected to last only until the end of a ‘season’—the period for which services are in demand.
• *** Other non-standard refers to non-permanent paid jobs that were either temporary, term, contractual, casual or other non-permanent (but not seasonal) employment. This excludes unemployed individuals who were self-employed.
• Source: Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, 2019 and 2021.

The coverage rate for men was slightly higher than that for women in 2021. The lower coverage rate for women can be explained by the fact that unemployed women are less likely to have recent insurable employment compared to unemployed men.^{Footnote 29} The coverage rate of younger unemployed individuals was still the lowest and the coverage rate for those aged 45 years and older remained the highest in 2021.

When the unemployed population is categorized by their previous work patterns, it can be seen that unemployed individuals with previous non-permanent jobs had higher coverage rates than those who had permanent jobs. This can be explained by the high coverage rate of unemployed individuals who worked in non-permanent seasonal jobs. As these individuals work for few weeks or months on a cyclical pattern over a year, they are more likely to have paid EI premiums in the previous 52 weeks than those who were in permanent jobs and might be unemployed for more than a year. Among unemployed individuals who previously held permanent jobs, the coverage rate in 2021 for those who had part-time jobs was the same as the one for those who had full-time jobs. This probably can be explained by the subsequent closures and reopenings of businesses that had reduced in the same way the share of individuals who did not pay EI premiums among the unemployed individuals with previous permanent full-time or part-time jobs. Among unemployed individuals who previously were in non-permanent employment, those who had seasonal work had a significantly higher coverage rate in 2021 compared to those who had non-seasonal non-standard work.

2.2.3 Level of Employment Insurance regular benefits

The weekly benefit rate to which EI claimants are entitled is typically subject to the Variable Best Weeks (VBW) provision.^{Footnote 32} Under this provision, the weekly benefit rate that eligible claimants are entitled to receive is calculated as 55% of the average of their highest (best) weeks of insurable earnings during their qualifying period, up to the maximum weekly benefit rate.^{Footnote 33} The number of weeks used to calculate the weekly benefit rate ranges from 14 to 22, depending on the monthly regional unemployment rate of the claimant’s EI economic region at the time their claim is established (consult subsection 2.1.2 for the VBW table).

Claimants with children (under 18 years old) and low annual family income may be eligible for the Family Supplement provision. This can increase their benefit rate from 55% up to a maximum of 80% of their weekly insurable earnings, subject to the maximum weekly benefit rate (consult subsection 2.1.2 for additional details). The results on weekly benefit rates in this subsection include the Family Supplement amounts paid to eligible claimants.

As explained in section 2.1, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, different sets of EI temporary measures were introduced. Under the first set of EI temporary measures, new EI claims established between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021 received a minimum benefit rate of $500 per week, up to the maximum weekly benefit rate. In addition, the number of best weeks of earnings used in the calculation of their weekly benefit rate was set to 14 weeks.^{Footnote 34} If a claimant’s benefit rate based on this calculation was higher than the minimum $500, their benefit rate was set to that amount up to the maximum weekly benefit rate.

New claims established between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022 were under the second set of EI temporary measures. These claims were subject to the original VBW provision. Furthermore, claims established between September 26, 2021 and November 20, 2021 received a minimum benefit rate of $300 per week. If a claimant’s benefit rate based on the VBW calculation was higher than the minimum $300, their benefit rate was set to that amount up to the maximum weekly benefit rate.

Due to the changes to benefit calculations, statistics on the average weekly benefit rate discussed in the subsection are presented for 3 distinct periods:

• the first half of FY2122 (from April 1, 2021 to September 25, 2021)
  • minimum benefit rate of $500 per week, up to the maximum weekly benefit rate
  • weekly benefit rate based on the best 14 weeks of earnings
• the 2-month period in fall 2021 (from September 26, 2021 to November 20, 2021)
  • minimum benefit rate of $300 per week, up to the maximum weekly benefit rate
  • weekly benefit rate based on the Variable Best Weeks provision
• the last 4 months of FY2122 (from November 21, 2021 to March 31, 2022)
  • weekly benefit rate based on the Variable Best Weeks provision

Table 15 outlines the average weekly benefit rate for EI regular benefits, by province or territory, gender, age group, and claimant category, for the 3 distinct periods of FY2122. For regular claims established in the first half of FY2122, the average weekly regular benefit rate was $547. It decreased to $500 for claims established during the 2-month period in fall 2021, while it was $511 for claims established during the last 4 months of FY2122.

As expected, the average weekly regular benefit rate was higher during the first half of FY2122 due to the minimum benefit rate of $500 per week in place during that time. The weekly regular benefit rate was $11 lower on average, for claims established between September 2021 and November 2021 than those established during the last 4 months of FY2122. This was the case even with the minimum benefit rate of $300 per week introduced in the 2-month period in fall 2021. This could be explained by the composition of claims established during that period. A higher proportion of those claims were established by claimants aged 55 years and over and by frequent claimants. These claimants tended to have lower weekly regular benefit rate on average.

• Note: Includes all claims for which at least $1 in EI regular benefits was paid.
• * Consult Annex 2.1 for definitions claimant categories referenced in this table.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

In line with trends observed over the past several fiscal years, claimants from the territories received, on average, the highest weekly regular benefit rate in the country over the whole FY2122. Conversely, claimants from Atlantic Canada received the lowest weekly regular benefit rate (consult Table 15).

In terms of gender, overall, men had higher average weekly benefit rates than women. However, the gap widened when the second set of EI temporary measures was in place. During the first half of FY2122, the gap between men and women was of $15 on average. It increased to $65 during the 2-month period in fall 2021, and $87 during the last 4 months of FY2122. The presence of a $500 weekly minimum benefit rate during the first half of FY2122 may have explained in part the smaller gap between men and women observed during this period.

In terms of age groups, claimants aged 45 to 54 years had the highest average weekly regular benefit rate in FY2122, while those aged 24 years and under received the lowest average weekly regular benefit rate. The average weekly benefit rate decreased for all groups when the second set of EI temporary measures was introduced. Claimants aged 24 years and under saw the largest decrease (‑$65) between the first half of FY2122 and the 2-month period in fall 2021, followed by claimants aged 55 and over (-$55).

The average weekly regular benefit rate was the highest for long-tenured workers in all 3 periods of FY2122, while the lowest was for occasional claimants. Of the 3 claimant categories, occasional claimants also had the largest decrease (-$62) in their average weekly regular benefit rate between the first half of FY2122 and the 2-month period in fall 2021.

As outlined in Table 16, 45.3% of all claims established for EI regular benefits in FY2122 received the maximum weekly benefit rate. The overall proportions were relatively constant over the 3 periods. In terms of gender, the share of claims established by men that received the maximum weekly benefit rate was significantly higher (56.3%) than for those established by women (30.1%). This is partly attributable to the fact that a higher proportion of women work in part-time jobs than men, leading to lower average weekly insurable earnings for them.

• Note: Includes all claims for which at least $1 in EI regular benefits was paid.
• * Consult Annex 2.1 for definitions claimant categories referenced in this table.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

In terms of age groups, claimants aged between 45 and 54 years had the highest share of claims receiving the maximum weekly regular benefit rate (51.2%) in FY2122, while claimants aged 24 years and under had the lowest share (22.0%). In terms of claimant category, long-tenured workers had the highest share of claims receiving the maximum weekly benefit rate (63.6%) in FY2122, while occasional claimants had the lowest (35.7%).

In the first half of FY2122, 44.2% of claims established received the minimum weekly benefit rate of $500. A higher share of women, claimants aged 24 years and under and occasional claimants were receiving the minimum weekly benefit rate of $500 compared to the other groups of their respective category. The proportion of claims established during the 2-month period in fall 2021 that received the minimum weekly benefit rate of $300 was 9.4%. A higher share of women, claimants aged 24 years and under and occasional claimants were also receiving the minimum weekly benefit rate of $300 during that period (consult Chart 9). There was no minimum weekly benefit rate in place during the last 4 months of FY2122.

Text description for chart 9

Category	First half of FY2122 (minimum $500)	Two-month period in fall 2021 (minimum $300)
Men	36.1%	5.8%
Women	50.6%	15.8%
24 years and under	75.3%	17.0%
25-44 years old	38.9%	7.2%
45-54 years old	35.6%	7.4%
55 years and above	52.6%	10.8%
Long-tenured workers	22.9%	2.7%
Occasional claimants	54.9%	14.4%
Frequent claimants	42.7%	5.5%

• Note: Includes all claims for which at least $1 in EI regular benefits was paid.
• * Consult Annex 2.1 for definitions claimant categories referenced in this chart.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

2.2.4 Employment Insurance regular benefit entitlement

This subsection presents detailed analysis on the duration of EI regular benefits, both maximum entitlement and actual weeks used. Statistics presented in this subsection are based on claims that were completed^{Footnote 35} during the fiscal year. Statistics for the reporting fiscal year are preliminary estimates and are subject to revision in the future.

2.2.5 Employment Insurance regular benefits and seasonal claimants

Seasonal claimants are EI claimants who had at least 3 regular or fishing claims in the 5 years preceding the reference year, with at least 2 of these claims having started during the same period of the year as the current claim.^{Footnote 42,Footnote 43} The definition of seasonal claimants is not exclusive of the definitions for other EI claimant categories.^{Footnote 44}

The criterion that defines seasonal claimants is based on the timing of the current claim and previously established claims within the previous 5 years, which may or may not correspond with the timing of their seasonal layoff.

As outlined in the definition, claims established by seasonal claimants can include both EI regular and fishing claims. In FY2122, a total of 371,900 claims were established by seasonal claimants. Of those, 342,800 claims (92.2%) were for EI regular benefits and the remaining 29,140 claims (7.8%) were for EI fishing benefits.^{Footnote 45} The analysis presented in this subsection focuses on seasonal regular claims only.^{Footnote 46}

As mentioned in Section 2.1, a first set of EI temporary measures were in effect for claims established during the first half of FY2122, whereas a modified second set of EI temporary measures were introduced for claims established during the second half of FY2122. As a result, some results are shown separately for the first and second halves of the FY2122 corresponding to the 2 different sets of EI temporary measures.

The seasonal regular claims’ share of all regular claims established in FY2122 was 23.5% for the whole fiscal year. This was higher than the share (12.0%) observed in the second half of FY2021. It was more comparable but still lower than the shares observed in fiscal years before the pandemic. The low share in FY2021 could be attributable to the significantly high number of non-seasonal regular claims established at that time. The share of seasonal regular claims amongst all regular claims established in FY2122 was lower in the first half of the year (11.9%) than in the second half of the year (30.0%). This relates to the distribution of seasonal regular claims that are more prevalent in the third quarter of the fiscal year (consult Chart 11). The total number of regular claims that could be identified as “seasonal” was relatively similar to the levels observed in fiscal years prior to the pandemic, as they had to have a history of claims in the previous 5 years to meet the definition.

Table 21 outlines the number of EI seasonal regular claims in FY2122 and their share of total regular claims by province, gender, age and industry. As in the past, the share of seasonal regular claims among total regular claims was higher in Atlantic provinces and Quebec, compared to the Western provinces and the territories. This may be attributed to the composition of industries in Atlantic Canada and Quebec, which contains a large share of goods-producing industries. As shown in Table 21, goods-producing industries have a higher share of EI seasonal regular claims among all regular claims than service-producing industries (33.9% vs 18.3% in FY2122).

• Note: Includes claims for which at least $1 of EI regular benefits was paid.
• * Since EI regular benefits were not available during the first half of FY2021, the number of claims for FY2021 only includes claims established in the second half of the fiscal year.
• **For some claims, this information was not available in the data.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

The distribution of seasonal regular claims across regions in FY2122 followed similar patterns to previous fiscal years (consult Chart 10). Of the 342,800 seasonal regular claims established in FY2122, the largest share was established in Quebec (36.4%), followed by claims established in Ontario (23.1%) and the Atlantic provinces (22.2%).

Text description for chart 10

Region	FY1213	FY1314	FY1415	FY1516	FY1617	FY1718	FY1819	FY1920	FY2021*	FY2122
Atlantic provinces	24.7%	24.0%	23.6%R	23.7%	22.0%	21.6%	22.2%	22.6%	25.0%	22.2%
Quebec	38.4%	38.1%	37.9%R	37.4%	41.0%	41.3%	38.7%	36.3%	38.5%R	36.4%
Ontario	21.9%	22.7%	23.1%	23.1%	24.3%	25.2%	25.1%	24.9%	20.5%R	23.1%
Western provinces	14.8%	15.0%	15.2%	15.5%	12.6%	11.7%	13.9%	16.0%	15.8%	18.0%
Territories	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%

• Note: Includes claims for which at least $1 of EI regular benefits was paid.
• * Since EI regular benefits were not available during the first half of FY2021, the number of claims for FY2021 only includes claims established in the second half of the fiscal year.
• ^R Revised data.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

As outlined in Table 22, more than two thirds (67.4%) of all seasonal regular claims were established by men in FY2122, getting closer to the distribution observed in fiscal years before the pandemic. Men accounted for a larger proportion of seasonal regular claims (77.8%) in FY2021 compared to other fiscal years because EI regular benefits were only available in the second half of the fiscal year.^{Footnote 47}

The age distribution of seasonal regular claimants in FY2122 was similar to previous fiscal years (consult Table 22). Claimants aged between 25 and 44 years established the largest share of seasonal regular claims, followed by those aged 55 and above. The share of seasonal regular claims established by younger claimants (aged 24 years and less) persistently remained low (2.0%) in FY2122. Although younger individuals are more likely to work in seasonal jobs (consult the text box ‘Seasonal workers in the Labour Force Survey’ below), a larger share of them tend to quit jobs and return to school, which is an invalid reason for job separation under the Employment Insurance Act. Consequently, they do not qualify to receive EI benefits. For this reason, younger individuals are less likely to meet the condition to be defined as seasonal claimants.

By sector, the services-producing and goods-producing industries accounted for similar shares of seasonal regular claims (48.7% and 49.5% respectively) established in FY2122.

• Note: Includes claims for which at least $1 of EI regular benefits was paid. Change in percentage points are based on unrounded numbers.
• * Since EI regular benefits were not available during the first half of FY2021, the number of claims for FY2021 only includes claims established in the second half of the fiscal year. For this reason, the distribution in FY1920 was used as the reference year for comparison with FY2122.
• ** For some claims, this information was not available in the data.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

Generally, the number of EI seasonal regular claims established throughout the year varies by quarter. For instance, almost two thirds (66.2%) of all seasonal regular claims established in FY2122 were established in the third quarter (October to December) of the fiscal year (consult Chart 11). This can be attributable to the slowdown in many seasonal industries during that time of year. The dominance of seasonal regular claims in the third quarter was consistently observed in all Canadian regions.

Text description for chart 11

Region	Q1 (April to June)	Q2 (July to September)	Q3 (October to December)	Q4 (January to March)
Atlantic provinces	4.3%	5.9%	70.9%	18.9%
Quebec	6.3%	8.3%	74.1%	11.2%
Ontario	18.9%	9.0%	55.0%	17.1%
Western provinces	17.7%	11.3%	58.8%	12.3%
Territories	4.1%	9.5%	78.4%	8.1%
Canada	10.8%	8.5%	66.2%	14.5%

• Note: Includes claims for which at least $1 of EI regular benefits was paid.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

As outlined in Table 23, seasonal regular claims are more likely to be established in the third quarter of the year by men, by claimants aged below 25 years old, and by claimants in the goods-producing industries. Though claimants in the services-producing industries are also more likely to establish claims in the third quarter of the fiscal year, more than a third of claims within these industries were established in the first 2 quarters (35.6%). This is likely due to the summer “off-season” in the Educational services industry, reflecting school closures during that period of the year.

• Note: Includes claims for which at least $1 of EI regular benefits was paid.
• * For some claims, this information was not available in the data.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

Overlapping definitions of seasonal and frequent claimants

Frequent EI claimants are defined as those who have had 3 or more regular or fishing claims and have collected benefits for more than 60 weeks in total within the past 5 years. There is a significant overlap between frequent and seasonal claimants.^{Footnote 51}

In FY2122, there were 276,910 EI regular claims that were established by frequent claimants. Given that 342,800 seasonal regular claims were established during the same period, this suggests that a portion of seasonal regular claimants collect less than 60 weeks of EI regular benefits over the course of 5 fiscal years. However, a large proportion of frequent claimants can also be considered seasonal (74.8% in FY2122). This is illustrated in Chart 12. In FY2122, the number of claims established by claimants who could be classified as both seasonal and frequent was 207,260, more than 1.5 times more than claims established by seasonal claimants who were non-frequent (135,540).

Text description for chart 12

Category	Level of claims	Share of total frequent and seasonal claims
Frequent, non-seasonal	69,650	16.9%
Frequent and seasonal	207,260	50.3%
Non-frequent, seasonal	135,540	32.9%

• Note: Includes claims for which at least $1 of EI regular benefits was paid.
• * Consult Annex 2.1 for definitions of frequent and seasonal claimants referenced in this chart.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

As most of the completed claims by seasonal claimants in FY2122 were established between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021, the results discussed below focus on those claims. Due to the first set of EI temporary measures in place during that period, all claims examined were entitled to 50 weeks of regular benefits.

Table 24 compares 3 characteristics of claims, which are average duration, proportion of weeks of regular benefits used and exhaustion rate in FY2122 among the 3 groups. In general, frequent claimants use more EI support than non-frequent claimants. Among frequent claimants, non-seasonal claimants received, on average, EI regular benefits for longer duration, used a greater proportion of their regular entitlement weeks and were more likely to exhaust their entitlement than seasonal claimants. Seasonal claimants (frequent and non-frequent) were less likely to exhaust their EI regular benefits compared to frequent non-seasonal claimants. This was likely due to seasonal claimants returning to their seasonal employment.

Table 24 – Characteristics of completed frequent* or seasonal Employment Insurance regular claims established between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021, by frequent and seasonal status, Canada, FY2122

Claimant type	Average duration of EI regular benefits (in weeks)P	Proportion of weeks of regular benefits used (%)P	Exhaustion rate (%)P
Frequent, non-seasonal	31.8	63.5%	20.1%
Frequent and seasonal	27.7	55.5%	9.6%
Non-frequent, seasonal	15.4	30.8%	5.0%

• Note: Completed claims include those that are terminated and those that are dormant and remained inactive as of August the following fiscal year.
• * Consult Annex 2.1 for definitions of frequent and seasonal claimants referenced in this table.
• ^P Preliminary data.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data.

2.2.6 Exhaustion of Employment Insurance regular benefits

EI regular benefits provide temporary income support to partially replace lost employment income for eligible claimants while they search for work or upgrade their skills. As such, a limit is set to the number of weeks claimants are entitled to collect EI benefits.

As mentioned in subsection 2.2.4, entitlement for EI regular benefits is determined based on 2 factors. First, the regional unemployment rate where the applicants lived at the time of establishing the claim. Second, the number of hours of insurable employment accumulated in the previous 52 weeks or since the establishment of their last claim, whichever is shorter. Claimants are also tied to a benefit period during which they may receive their entitlement. The benefit period is generally 52 weeks.

In FY2122, 2 sets of EI temporary measures were in effect, including changes to the length of the entitlement to EI regular benefits. Under the first set of EI temporary measures, effective September 27, 2020 to September 25, 2021, the maximum entitlement for claims established was set at 50 weeks. Under the second set of EI temporary measures, effective September 26, 2021 to September 24, 2022, the entitlement for claims returned to a range from 14 weeks to a maximum of 45 weeks (consult Section 2.1).

Claimants are considered having exhausted their entitlement to EI regular benefits when the number of weeks of benefits received (actual duration) equals the entitlement available over the course of the benefit period (the period during which an EI claimant can receive EI benefits). Measuring the entitlement exhaustion rate of EI regular benefits can give an indication of the adequacy of EI regular benefits provided to those looking for suitable employment following a job separation.

Since a claim must be completed^{Footnote 57} in order to determine whether the entitlement is exhausted or not, the analysis in this section focuses on EI regular claims completed during FY2122.

2.2.7 Working while on claim

In addition to providing temporary income support to eligible unemployed contributors, the Employment Insurance (EI) program is also designed to encourage claimants to accept available jobs, maintain their skills and remain connected to the labour market while they receive EI regular benefits. The Working While on Claim (WWC) provision of the Employment Insurance Act does this by allowing claimants to earn additional employment income while on claim. The WWC provision applied to all types of EI benefits in FY2122.

The WWC provision, which previously existed under legislation or pilot projects,^{Footnote 62} determines how EI benefits are adjusted to reflect employment income earned while on claim. It allows claimants to keep their employment earnings while continuing to receive a portion of their EI benefits, up to a limit after which benefits are reduced dollar for dollar. If benefits are reduced to zero, the week of entitlement is deferred and can be used later during the benefit period.^{Footnote 63}

Under WWC, claimants can keep 50 cents of their EI benefits for every dollar earned while on claim, up to a maximum of 90% of the average weekly insurable earnings used to calculate their weekly benefit rate, before benefits are deducted dollar-for-dollar.^{Footnote 64}

This subsection focuses on claims and their beneficiaries who reported employment income from part-time or full-time work in at least 1 week while on claim, regardless of whether the EI benefits for those weeks were paid in full, partial or zero. To make the text easier to read, these claims and their beneficiaries are referred to in this subsection as having "at least 1 week worked while on claim" even if the week or weeks of work were partially completed (for example, 2 days of work).

2.3.1 Employment Insurance support for apprentices

For many skilled trades, apprenticeship is the path to gain the skills and experience that are necessary for certification and to participate fully in the labour market. In Canada, the apprenticeship system is an industry-driven learning system that combines on-the-job and technical training. Each province or territory is responsible for apprenticeship training within its jurisdiction. As a result, apprenticeship programs in Canada, including the duration and delivery method of technical training, vary across trades and across provinces and territories.

In Quebec for instance, apprentices generally complete all of their technical training at a college (CEGEP) or at a training institution before beginning on-the-job training. In the rest of Canada, apprentices start with on-the-job training followed by technical training through a variety of approaches. These include in-class learning, self-learning, distance learning, night classes or day release programs.

In most jurisdictions, to enter an apprenticeship program, a prospective apprentice must be at least 16 years old and have successfully completed Grade 12 or have an equivalent amount of work experience or related education. In addition, the potential apprentice must find a job with an employer who will sponsor and train them under the mentorship of a qualified person.

To help EI contributors continue their apprenticeship and become certified journeypersons or tradespeople, the EI program offers temporary income support to those who are unemployed and attending full-time technical training (sometimes referred to as block-release training). To qualify, they must meet EI regular benefits eligibility requirements,^{Footnote 67} and their respective province, territory or Indigenous organization must have referred them to training under section 25 of the Employment Insurance Act. They must be referred for each block of full-time technical training that is required as part of their apprenticeship. Employers may also offer their apprentices Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB) plans to increase their weekly income during their periods of technical training, up to 95% of the apprentice’s normal weekly earnings.^{Footnote 68}

Apprentices can apply for EI benefits up to 7 days before their last day of work. They are only required to serve 1 waiting period for the full duration of their apprenticeship, even if it involves multiple blocks of full-time technical training, as long as they remain in the same apprenticeship program.

To help ensure that apprentices receive EI benefits without delay while they attend full-time technical training, their province, territory or Indigenous organization provides them with a special reference code issued for each block of full-time technical training. This code facilitates faster processing and payment of their EI benefits and helps speed up payment to apprentices.

Apprentices may also be entitled to receive financial support under Part II of the Employment Insurance Act.^{Footnote 69} This support is delivered by the provinces and territories (under the Labour Market Development Agreements) and Indigenous organizations (under the Indigenous Skills and Employment Training Program). These EI benefits help cover accommodation, childcare, transportation and other costs incurred while attending technical training. Other financial support from the Government of Canada is also available through programs such as the Canada Apprentice Loan and various apprenticeship grants.

The following sections present detailed statistics on the number of EI claims from apprentices, their weekly benefit rate and duration of their benefits. EI claims from apprentices are those referred under section 25 of the Employment Insurance Act and who received at least 1 dollar of EI regular benefits during a period of full-time apprenticeship training.

2.3.2 Training with permission from Service Canada to keep receiving Employment Insurance

Under Skills Boost, claimants who are long-tenured workers^{Footnote 74} and wish to self-fund full-time training at an approved institution may request permission directly from Service Canada to continue receiving EI regular benefits during training. Otherwise, the training could restrict their ability to meet program requirements (that is, searching and being available for work). Service Canada does not offer services normally provided by the provinces and territories such as employment counselling, job search assistance, needs assessments and assistance with the development of return to work action plans.

In FY2122, Service Canada gave permission to (or “referred”) 623 claimants to continue receiving EI benefits in order to train under Skills Boost.^{Footnote 75} This is similar to the 612 claimants referred in the previous year (consult Table 34). Out of these 623 claims established under Skills Boost in FY2122, 572 (91.8 %) contained at least 1 week of EI regular benefits paid while on training and 444 (71.3%) included at least 1 week of EI regular benefits paid while not on training. Of the total $9.3 million EI regular benefits paid to claimants under Skills Boost in FY2122, $6.3 million (67.7% of the total amount) was paid while claimants were on training and $2.7 million (29.4% of the total amount) were paid while claimants were not on training.

• ¹ For confidentiality reasons, data for the territories have been included with those for British Columbia.
• ² For confidentiality reasons, data for Utilities industry have been combined with Manufacturing.
• ³ This industry sector comprises the industries with codes 55 (Management of companies and enterprises) and 56 (Administration and support. waste management and remediation services).
• ⁴ This industry sector comprises the industries with codes 51 (Information and cultural industries) and 71 (Arts, entertainment and recreation).
• ⁵ For some claims, this information was not available in the data.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada. Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 100% sample of EI administrative data.

As in the previous year, the largest number of training referrals by Service Canada was in Quebec (26.2%), followed by Ontario (25.4%), and Alberta (21.2%). These 3 provinces also made up the bulk of EI regular claims with 29.6%, 29.9% and 9.5%, respectively.

In FY2122, claimants who had been referred by Service Canada received benefits totalling $9.3 million. This is lower than the $11.4 million recorded in FY2021. Ontario (25.8%), Alberta (23.8%), Quebec (23.7%), and British Columbia and the territories (10.9%) accounted for 84.1% of the total amount paid in EI benefits of all types.

Like in the previous year, women accounted for over half of referrals (52.0%) and total benefits paid (52.6%). Claimants aged 44 and under established 73.0% of all referrals and 71.0% total benefits paid.

From an industry perspective, claimants who previously worked in the Wholesale and retail trade sector accounted for the largest share of referrals (12.2%), followed by those from Construction (10.9%), Manufacturing (10.4%), and Health care and social assistance sectors (10.1%). Claims associated with claimants from those industry sectors accounted for 44.2% of total benefits paid for all types of benefits, 44.3% for regular benefits while on training and 42.8% for EI regular benefits.

Like for claims established by apprentices, the calculation of the weekly benefit rates for Skill Boost claims varied in FY2122 due to the implementation of different sets of EI temporary measures. Consequently, results on weekly benefit rates are reported for 3 distinct periods (consult Section 2.1). For claims established during the first half of FY2122, claimants received, on average, a weekly benefit rate of $536. Claims established between September 2021 and November 2021 received, on average, a weekly benefit rate of $500. For claims established during the last 4 months of FY2122, the average weekly benefit rate was $526 (consult Annex 2.25.3).

For claims established during the last 4 months of FY2122 (when the Variable best weeks calculation method was in place), the average weekly benefit rate received by Skill Boost claimants ($526) was higher than the average weekly EI regular benefit rate ($511). However, it was lower than the average weekly regular benefit rate paid to long-tenured workers claimants ($564) during the same period.

Using a breakdown by gender and age, overall, the average weekly benefit rate received by claimants was higher for men than for women. Among different age groups, claimants aged between 45 and 54 years received the highest weekly benefit rate for most of FY2122.

Claims established between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021 and completed in FY2122 by claimants with a referral to training by Service Canada were entitled 50 weeks of regular benefits as part of the first set of EI temporary measures (consult Section 2.1). The average duration discussed in the subsection focuses on those claims.^{Footnote 76}

Claimants with a referral to training by Service Canada received, on average, 24.3 weeks of EI benefits while on training and 18.2 weeks of EI benefits while looking for a job during their claim period (consult Annex 2.25.2).

Claimants from Atlantic provinces and British Columbia and the territories received, on average, the highest number of EI weeks while taking training (both at 24.3 weeks). Claimants from Manitoba received, on average, the highest number of EI regular benefits weeks while not on training (22.8 weeks), followed by those from Ontario (19.3 weeks) and Alberta (19.2 weeks).

As in the previous year, women received, on average, more weeks of EI benefits than men while attending full-time training (24.7 weeks versus 23.6 weeks). Conversely, when they were looking for a job, men received more weeks of regular benefits than women did (18.5 weeks compared to 18.0 weeks).

Claimants aged 24 years and under and those aged between 35 and 44 years received, on average, the highest number of benefits weeks while on training (24.9 weeks and 24.5 weeks, respectively). Claimants aged between 45 and 54 years received the most weeks of EI regular benefits while not on training (20.7 weeks), while those aged 34 years and under received the lowest number of weeks (15.3 weeks).

2.4.1 Employment Insurance fishing claims and benefits paid

The total number of new EI fishing claims went from 28,288 in FY2021 to 29,955 in FY2122, similar to pre-pandemic levels. The total amount of EI fishing benefits paid increased from $323.6 million in FY2021 to $354.8 million in FY2122 (consult Chart 13).

Text description for chart 13

Year	FY1213	FY1314	FY1415	FY1516	FY1617	FY1718	FY1819	FY1920	FY2021	FY2122
Fishing claims (in thousands) (left scale)	28.3	27.2	27.6	28.3	28.9	30.1	30.4	30.4	28.3	30.0
Amount paid ($ millions) (right scale)	$252.8	$247.9	$255.6	$272.3	$282.9	$300.2	$297.7	$303.1	$323.6	$354.8

• Note: Includes claims for which at least $1 of fishing benefits was paid.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data on claims are based on a 100% sample of EI administrative data, while data on amount paid are based on a 10% sample.

In FY2122, 96.2% of claimants who relied on EI fishing benefits resided in 6 provinces (Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia and Quebec) (consult Table 36). More claims were established during the second half of the reporting period (17,628 claims) than in the first period (12,327 claims). This is due to the fact that, generally, more fishing claims are established during the summer season (consult Table 38).

• Note: Data may not add up to total due to rounding. Includes all claims for which at least $1 in EI fishing benefits was paid.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 100% sample of EI administrative data, except for amount paid which is based on a 10% sample.

Atlantic Canada accounted for the largest share of all claims established in FY2122 (84.8%), a proportion virtually identical to the previous year. Claimants in Atlantic Canada also received the largest share of EI fishing benefits (85.9%) paid in FY2122.

Men still accounted for the largest shares of both claims established (79.0%) and the total amount paid in EI fishing benefits (79.1%) in FY2122. Like in the previous year, the shares of amount paid in EI fishing benefits to both men and women were proportional to their shares of claims established, as shown in Table 36.

As in previous years, older claimants (55 years and older) accounted for the largest shares of both new claims (44.3%), and the total amount paid in fishing benefits (44.0%). The total amount paid to older claimants continue to increase over time, while it represented 37.7% of fishing benefits paid in FY1718.

During FY2122, the calculation of the weekly benefit rate varied due to the different sets of EI temporary measures. Consequently, results on weekly benefit rates are reported for 3 distinct periods (consult Section 2.1). During the first half of FY2122, the average weekly fishing benefit rate was $582. The proportion of fishing claims established during that period that received the minimum $500 weekly benefit rate was 9.3%. For claims established between September 2021 and November 2021, the average weekly fishing benefit rate was $539. The proportion of fishing claims receiving the minimum benefit rate of $300 per week was 8.2% during that 2-month period. The average weekly fishing benefit rate was $565 for claims established during the last 4 months of FY2122. The average weekly benefit rates associated with fishing claims were above the average weekly benefit rates for EI regular benefits for all periods of FY2122, consistent with previous fiscal years.

Among the 6 provinces with a significant fishing industry, the average weekly benefit rate was generally higher in Quebec followed by Atlantic Canada and British Columbia (consult annex 2.9.3). For all 3 periods of FY2122, the average weekly fishing benefit rate for men was still higher than that for women. Claimants who were aged between 45 and 54 years had the highest average weekly fishing benefit rate for the whole FY2122.

In FY2122, the proportions of fishing claims that received the maximum weekly benefit rate were 77.7% during the first half of the fiscal year, 62.1% during the 2-month period of fall 2021, and 78.5% in the last 4 months of FY2122 (consult Table 37). These proportions were higher that the proportions of EI regular claims that received the maximum benefit rate in the 3 periods (42.4%, 44.5% and 48.0%).^{Footnote 86}

• Note: Includes all claims for which at least $1 in EI fishing benefits was paid.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada. Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 100% sample of EI administrative data.

Similar to previous fiscal years, in all periods, men had a higher proportion of fishing claims that received the maximum benefit rate compared to women. This is attributable in part to the fact that men had established more claims with insurable earnings above the amount required to obtain the maximum benefit rate compared to women.^{Footnote 87} Overall, claimants aged 24 years and under had the lowest proportion of fishing claims at the maximum weekly benefit rate, while those aged between 45 and 54 years old had the highest proportion of claims at the maximum weekly benefit rate (consult Table 37).

2.4.2 Seasonal component of Employment Insurance fishing benefits

EI fishing benefits are available for 2 fishing seasons per year (winter and summer), allowing eligible claimants to establish more than 1 claim in a year. In FY2122, 20,660 fishers established 29,955 new fishing claims. Of these 20,660 fishers, 11,408 established a single claim while the rest (9,252 fishers) established multiple claims.

Table 38 outlines the number of fishers that established claims by season of establishment for the past 5 years. The number of fishers who established a fishing claim during the reporting period increased by +3.5% from the previous year, similar to pre-pandemic levels. The number of fishers who established solely a winter claim markedly increased during this period by +15.5%, while the number of fishers who established solely a summer claim decreased by -7.3%.

• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 100% sample of EI administrative data.

In FY2122, fishers who established a single claim received an average of $12,582 in EI fishing benefits. Those who had established 2 fishing claims received an average of $13,285 for the first claim and an average of $10,988 for the second claim, for a total average of $24,272 received in EI fishing benefits in FY2122.

2.4.3 Duration of Employment Insurance fishing benefits

Regardless of the local labour market conditions in a claimant’s region of residence, the maximum entitlement of a claim established for EI fishing benefits is 26 weeks. In FY2122, the average duration of a fishing claim was 22.0 weeks, up from 20.3 weeks (+8.2%) from the previous fiscal year.

Among the provinces with a significant fishing industry, claims established in British Columbia have historically had the highest average duration of fishing benefits and this reporting year was no exception. The average duration in this province was 23.0 weeks in FY2122, virtually the same as the previous year. Claims established in Quebec and Prince Edward Island had the lowest average duration at 21.2 weeks in FY2122 (consult annex 2.9.2).

The lower average duration of claims in some Atlantic Provinces and Quebec compared to British Columbia may be attributable, in part, to the fact that more than half of fishers in these regions establish 2 claims per year. In comparison, fishers in British Columbia mostly establish a single claim per year. For example, within the past 5 years, on average, 49.3% of fishers in the Atlantic Provinces and 65.2% of fishers in Quebec established 2 claims per year, whereas the share of fishers with 2 claims during this period was 2.3% in British Columbia.

Table 39 outlines the average duration of fishing benefits. In FY2122, fishers who established a single fishing claim received an average of 23.4 weeks, unchanged from the previous fiscal year. Fishers who established 2 claims received an average of 23.0 weeks for their first claim and 19.3 weeks for their second claim, for a total average of 42.3 weeks for the whole year in FY2122, an increase of +16.5% or 6.0 weeks compared to FY2021.

• Note: Percentage change is based on unrounded numbers.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 100% sample of EI administrative data.

2.5.1 Overview

The Work-Sharing program is a key instrument in supporting employers and their workers in avoiding layoffs when there is a temporary reduction in business activity due to economic downturns that are beyond the control of the employer. Employees benefit by maintaining their jobs and skills by supplementing their wages for the hours they are not working. The program also allows employees to maintain non-salary benefits. The program offers a form of job stability and financial security to a large number of employees which can have a multiplier effect on communities.

Layoffs are avoided by offering temporary income support to EI-eligible workers who accept to work a temporarily reduced workweek while their employer recovers. Workers in the Work-Sharing program receive EI benefits to partially replace their reduction in work hours. The goal of the program is for all participating employees to return to normal working hours by the end of the Work-Sharing agreement (consult subsection 2.5.2 for a comprehensive Program description).

During the first 2 years of the pandemic, the Work-Sharing program was successful in supporting business and individuals. From April 2020 to the end of March 2022, the program helped support an estimated 165,000 workers and avert over 73,000 layoffs.^{Footnote 88}

In FY2122, Canadian businesses started recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the economy recovered, the unemployment rate dropped while labour shortages began to increase, especially in the services-producing industries (consult Chapter 1 for more economic and labour market context).

2.5.2 What is the Work-Sharing program

The Work-Sharing program acts as a stabilizer during economic downturns. The program helps employees maintain connections to both their employers and the labour market, as well as generates savings for the EI operating account.

The program operates under the authority of section 24 of the Employment Insurance Act, and sections 42 to 49 of the Employment Insurance Regulations. An agreement between an employer and Service Canada is required and helps avert layoffs during a temporary reduction in business activity.

Work-Sharing agreements must include a reduction in work activity ranging between 10% and 60% of the employees’ regular weekly work schedule. In any given week, the work reduction can vary depending on available work, as long as the work reduction on average over the life of the agreement is between 10% and 60%. The proposed reduction in work hours should correspond with the number of anticipated temporary layoffs.

During participation in a Work-Sharing agreement, employer-initiated training activities may take place. Training costs may be funded by the employer or through other available supports, such as provincial or territorial programming.

The salary costs of employees taking part in training activities during normal scheduled working hours cannot be compensated through the Work-Sharing agreement. Training can take place during the non-working hours for which the participating employees are in receipt of EI Work-Sharing benefits.

In order for an employer to be eligible for a Work-Sharing agreement, employers must meet the following criteria:

• have been in business in Canada year-round for at least 2 years
• be a publicly-held company, private business or a certain type of not-for-profit organization
• experience temporary shortages of work and reductions in business activity that are beyond their control, and the shortage of work is not a cyclical or recurring slowdown
• employ at least 2 eligible employees in the work unit
• demonstrate a recent decrease of approximately 10% to 60% of their business activity
• undertake recovery measures that will return employees to normal levels of employment upon the completion of the Work-Sharing agreement
• commit to maintain employee benefits throughout the Work-Sharing agreement period

Employees participating in a Work-Sharing agreement must:

• be year-round permanent full-time or part-time employees who are required to carry out the everyday functions of the business
• be eligible to receive EI benefits
• agree to a reduction of their normal working hours and to share equally the available work among all members of their Work-Sharing unit over a specified period of time

An initial Work-Sharing agreement can last between a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 26 consecutive weeks. This helps ensure the program is flexible and responsive to the needs of employers and workers during unforeseen economic events. The duration can be extended for up to 12 additional weeks (allowing a Work-Sharing agreement to last up to 38 weeks), if needed.

In the case of an extension, employers must:

• continue to experience a reduction in business activity
• attest that Work-Sharing will result in averting the layoff of 1 or more employees
• ensure the period of the extension is needed to complete the return to normal working hours

After completing an arrangement, employers requesting another agreement are required to serve a mandatory cooling-off period; the mandatory minimum is equal to the duration of the previous arrangement (up to a maximum period of 38 weeks).

To illustrate how the program works, consider a business with 100 workers. The business is considering temporarily laying-off 60 workers during a temporary and unexpected economic downturn, due to supply chain constraints. If the 60 EI eligible workers were laid off, they would collect EI regular benefits for every day they were unemployed, up to their maximum entitlement.

Work-Sharing allows all 100 of the business’ employees to share the costs of the downturn. Rather than laying off the 60 workers, the business could reduce the workweek by up to 60% (for example, work a 2-day week) for all 100 workers. This would allow all the workers to stay connected to the labour market and to their employer, which allows them to retain their skills and employee benefits, avoiding skill erosion.

2.5.3 Work-Sharing temporary special measures: part of Canada’s COVID-19 economic response

During times of economic stability, employers were less likely to participate in the program. However, over the past decade, temporary special measures have been introduced almost every year in response to sectoral, regional, or national economic downturns.

As part of Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, temporary special measures were put in place in March 2020, at the onset of the pandemic. The temporary special measures were implemented to assist workers and employers in all industries and sectors across Canada facing unexpected downturns due to COVID-19 to access the program. Work-Sharing temporary special measures remained in effect until September 24, 2022. By helping to keep employers in business and employees employed, Work-Sharing program contributed to maintaining a skilled and job-ready workforce as the economy recovers.

Key Work-Sharing temporary special measures that remained in place during FY2122 included:

• extending the maximum duration for agreements to 76 weeks (from 38 weeks). In FY2122, 20% of agreements exceeded 39 weeks compared to 40% in the previous fiscal year
• streamlining the application process. This resulted in shorter Work-Sharing application processing timeframes, from 30 calendar days to 10 business days and made it easier for employees to access EI Work-Sharing benefits in a timely manner
• eliminating the cooling-off period. This meant that businesses were no longer required to wait the length of time of their previous Work-Sharing agreement before being eligible for a new agreement. Under standard program parameters, the cooling-off period ensures that employers and their employees cannot participate in back-to-back agreements thus helping to avoid over reliance on Work-Sharing benefits while ensuring appropriate access for businesses weathering temporary downturns
• expanding eligibility to employees essential to the recovery and viability of the business. These workers were previously excluded from program eligibility to ensure that they could focus on business recovery. Given the extremely unusual circumstances of the pandemic (for example closures or restrictions), even those individuals deemed necessary to the success of the business were no longer required to work full time to do this essential work. For example, if business activity was basically eliminated, essential workers such as managers, marketing staff and IT staff did not have any full-time work to do

2.5.4 Employers - decrease in agreements across Canada

As Canada started recovering economically in FY2122, the employment rate for Canadians aged 15 to 64 began returning to pre-pandemic levels. As a result, the demand for the Work-Sharing program fell to less than 900 agreements compared to more than 4,200 in FY2021 (consult Chart 14).

Text description for chart 14

Year	FY1011	FY1112	FY1213	FY1314	FY1415	FY1516	FY1617	FY1718	FY1819	FY1920	FY2021	FY2122
Agreements	1,379	1,198	830	649	411	917	862	198	158	370	4,224r	886

• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Common System of Grants and Contributions.
• ^r Revised data.

As a result of the Work-Sharing agreements, an estimate of almost 14,000 averted layoffs and over 32,000 employees participated in Work-Sharing agreements during FY2122.^{Footnote 89}

Over 98% of agreements were businesses with 500 or fewer employees, likely were still recovering from the decline of revenues during the pandemic.

Across the country, in absolute terms, Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia have had the most agreements year-over-year (consult Table 40). As expected, the number of agreements largely increased proportionally with respect to the size of the affected population in each jurisdiction.

• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Common System of Grants and Contributions.
• ^c Data for some regions have been combined for confidentiality purposes.
• ^r Revised data.

There were spikes in new agreements that occurred throughout FY2122. Causes for these spikes could be linked to employers potentially re-establishing expired agreements 72 weeks after establishing their initial agreements at the beginning of the pandemic in spring 2020. Also, the infection outbreak in the winter of FY2122 could also explain the increase in new agreements signed in January and February 2022^{Footnote 90} (consult Chart 15).

Text description for chart 15

Month	April 2021	May 2021	June 2021	July 2021	August 2021	September 2021	October 2021	November 2021	December 2021	January 2022	February 2022	March 2022
Agreements	40	96	45	23	38	88	195	90	35	115	67	54

• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Common System of Grants and Contributions.

Historically, two thirds or more of Work-Sharing agreements implemented over the last decade were in goods-producing industries. The situation changed significantly in FY2021, as pandemic-related restrictions also impacted service-producing industries.

In FY2122, the ratio of Work-Sharing agreements returned back to being more heavily weighted towards goods-producing industries compared to the service-producing industries. Close to 60% of the Work-Sharing agreements were in goods-producing industry in FY2122, compared to only 40% of the agreements in FY2021. The change could be associated with the reduced COVID-19 restrictions that were put in place at the beginning of the pandemic.

The number of Work-Sharing agreements within the service sector in FY2122 decreased by 85% compared to the previous fiscal year (consult Table 41).

• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Common System of Grants and Contributions.
• ^r Revised data.

The distribution of Work-Sharing agreements by employer size has remained consistent since the 2008-2009 recession. Since then, over 95% of agreements assisted small and medium sized businesses (fewer than 500 employees) to recover from disruptions to their normal levels of business activities.

2.5.5 Workers - Employment Insurance Work-Sharing claims and amount paid

To be eligible to receive EI benefits under a Work-sharing agreement, workers need to meet the eligibility criteria for EI regular benefits. Different EI temporary measures were implemented between September 2020 and September 2022, changing the eligibility criteria during FY2021 and FY2122. Consult Section 2.1 for more details.

The context in FY2021 was unprecedented, which led to a substantial increase in the number of claims for Work-Sharing benefits during that period. With the improvement in economic activity and recovery across sectors and regions in FY2122, the number of claims for Work-Sharing benefits dropped compared to FY2021.

Claims for Work-Sharing benefits in FY2122 decreased over 80%. Also, the amount of EI Work-Sharing benefits paid decreased by more than 50% compared to the previous year (consult Chart 16).

Decreases in Work-Sharing agreements and benefits paid coincide with the increase in economic activity and the recovery across sectors and regions. Reductions and removals of health restrictions could be a cause for the drop of claims registered in the service-producing industries (consult Annex 2.22.2).

Text description for chart 16

Year	FY1718	FY1819	FY1920	FY2021	FY2122
Amount paid in $ million	$12.5	$5.7	$16.5	$183.5	$88.8
New claims established	3,708	3,815	11,046	82,991	15,078

• Note: Includes claims for which at least $1 of Employment Insurance (EI) Work-Sharing benefits was paid.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data is based on a 100% sample of EI administrative data.

Claims: The number of new claims and the amounts of benefits paid decreased in all provinces and territories. Ontario and Quebec continued to account for over half of both new claims and amounts paid (consult Table 42). There were no claims from workers in the territories (Nunavut, Northwest Territories and the Yukon) for FY2122, trending similar to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Demographics: There were no notable changes in the demographics of Work-Sharing claimants from the previous year. Women accounted for just less than one third of claims in FY2122 and received a similar proportion of benefits paid.

Age distribution: The age distribution of claimants remained relatively unchanged. Individuals aged 25 to 54 continued to account for two thirds of claims established and benefits paid. Youth remained under-represented among new Work-Sharing claims established, relative to their share of national employment figures (14% in March 2022).^{Footnote 91}

Sectors: Some key highlights for sectors in which Work-Sharing claimants were employed include:

• employees in the goods-producing industries accounted for over four fifths of Work-Sharing claims and benefits paid in FY2122. In FY2021, the goods-producing industries registered similar proportion of the total claims and benefits paid to the service-producing industries. Reductions of COVID-19 restrictions likely caused drop in claims for the services-producing industries
• the number of Work-Sharing claims and benefits paid decreased substantially in the services-producing industries in FY2122. The Wholesale trade sector and the professional, scientific and technical services sector had the largest drop in claims and benefits paid
• claimants from the Manufacturing sector accounted for most of the Work-Sharing claims in the goods-producing industries during FY2122. While the proportion of the total Work-Sharing benefits paid was higher than in FY2021, Manufacturing accounted for roughly 25% less of than pre-pandemic proportions. The shares of claims and benefits paid from this sector are disproportionate to their approximately 9%^{Footnote 92} share of total national employment figures during FY2122

• Note: Data may not add up to the total due to rounding. Percentage share is based on unrounded numbers. Includes claims for which at least $1 of Employment Insurance (EI) Work-Sharing benefits was paid.
• ^c Data for some regions have been combined for confidentiality purposes.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, EI administrative data. Data for claims and amount paid are based on a 100% sample of EI administrative data.

2.5.6 Level and duration of Employment Insurance Work-Sharing benefits

The weekly Work-Sharing benefits paid to claimants are determined by:

• employees’ wages
• EI benefit rate calculation, and
• degree of reductions in the hours worked (between 10% and 60%)

Different sets of EI temporary measures were implemented between September 2020 and September 2022. The EI benefit rate calculation was reformed during FY2021 and FY2122 because of these temporary measures (consult Section 2.1 for more details). For this reason, the average weekly Work-Sharing benefit rates between FY1920 and FY2122 are not fully comparable.

The national average weekly Work-Sharing benefit rate was $145 during FY2122. The national average weekly Work-Sharing benefit rate increased roughly 9% over the one registered in the previous fiscal year.^{Footnote 93} The average weekly benefit rates entitled to Work-Sharing claimants did not vary much across the different calculation methods in place in FY2122.

• Note: Includes claims for which at least $1 of Work-Sharing benefits was paid.
• ^c Data for some industries have been combined for confidentiality purposes.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 100% sample of EI administrative data.

The average weekly benefit rate increased in all the provinces, except for Ontario, in FY2122. The western provinces recorded the highest average weekly benefit rate in FY2122, while the Atlantic provinces posted the lowest.

From a gender perspective, men had a higher average weekly benefit rate than women. This is probably attributable to the different industries in which they worked.

The average weekly Work-Sharing benefit rate was relatively similar across age groups in FY2122. In previous fiscal years, the benefit rate of younger workers was lower on average.

As in previous fiscal years, there was variability in the average weekly Work-Sharing benefit rate across industries in FY2122. The highest weekly benefit rate was in the Finance and insurance sector, while the lowest was in the Wholesale trade sector.

As shown in Chart 17, the average duration of Work-Sharing claims completed in FY2122 was 23.5 weeks. Close to doubling duration from the previous fiscal year. The increased average duration of agreements is likely a result of a decreased number of agreements terminating early (consult section 2.5.7 for additional insights).

Text description for chart 17

Year	FY1718	FY1819	FY1920	FY2021	FY2122
Average duration (weeks)	23.8	15.5	14.4	11.8r	23.5P

• Note: Includes all claims for which at least $1 of Work-Sharing benefits was paid.
• ^r Revised data.
• ^P Preliminary data.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data are based on a 100% sample of EI administrative data.

2.5.7 Employment Insurance Work-Sharing agreements subject to early termination and layoffs averted

When a Work-Sharing agreement ends before the anticipated end date, this is termed an early termination. Early termination^{Footnote 94} may be due to a number of reasons, for example:

• return to normal levels of business activity
• decision to proceed with layoffs
• shutdown

Early terminations in FY2122 decreased to less than 60% of all agreements, down from 3 quarters the previous fiscal year. Before the pandemic, less than half of the agreements had early terminations year over year. The decrease in both early terminations and new agreements in FY2122, could be a sign the economy is recovering.

Text description for chart 18

Year	FY1718	FY1819	FY1920	FY2021	FY2122
Number of agreements	75	55	181	3,350	519
Percentage of early terminated agreements	38%	35%	49%	79%	59%

• Note: Early termination is based of the project going through the termination phase.

Historical trends show that the number of Work-Sharing claims increase during economic recessions and decline during periods of recovery and economic growth. The program has the further advantage of allowing employers to retain skilled employees. This helps employers avoid the costly process of recruiting and training new employees when business returns to normal levels.

In this section

• 2.6.1 Employment Insurance special benefit claims overview
• 2.6.2 Employment Insurance maternity and parental benefits
• 2.6.3 Employment Insurance sickness benefits
• 2.6.4 Employment Insurance compassionate care benefits
• 2.6.5 Employment Insurance family caregiver benefit for adults
• 2.6.6 Employment Insurance family caregiver benefit for children
• 2.6.7 Employment Insurance special benefits for self-employed persons

EI special benefits provide temporary income support to employees, self-employed persons who opt-in to the program, and self-employed fishers who are eligible and unable to work due to specific life circumstances. These include illness or injury; pregnancy or giving birth; providing care to a newborn or newly adopted child, and providing care or support to a critically ill or injured person or someone needing end-of-life care.

To qualify for EI special benefits, insured employees must have accumulated a minimum 600 hours of insurable employment during their qualifying period. This minimum hours threshold for special benefits changed during FY2122 due to the different sets of EI temporary measures introduced during the period (consult Section 2.1). The minimum was 120 hours for claims established during the first half of FY2122 (due to the one-time credit of 480 hours for special benefit claims) and 420 hours for claims established during the second half of FY2122.^{Footnote 95} Insured employees must also meet the eligibility criteria for the special benefits claimed and have their normal weekly earnings reduced by more than 40% due to their interruption of earnings.

Self-employed persons may qualify for EI special benefits if they opted into the EI program and paid EI premiums at least 1 full year prior to claiming these benefits. They also must have net self-employment income that meets the minimum self-employment earnings threshold^{Footnote 96} in the calendar year preceding the claim, and meet other eligibility criteria specific to the special benefits being claimed. During FY2122, the minimum self-employment earnings threshold for self-employed persons seeking to qualify for special benefits was reduced in an equivalent manner to the minimum number of hours to qualify for special benefits as part of the EI temporary measures that were in place.

As explained in Section 2.1, different sets of EI temporary measures were in place during the reporting period. As a result, some of the main indicators covered in the following subsections are presented separately for the first and the second half of FY2122.

Subsection 2.6.1 provides a summary overview of special benefits in terms of the number of new claims established, amount paid and level of benefits. The following subsections examine the EI special benefits by type. Subsection 2.6.2 discusses maternity and parental benefits. Sickness benefits are introduced in subsection 2.6.3. Subsections 2.6.4, 2.6.5 and 2.6.6 examine compassionate care benefits, the family caregiver benefit for adults and the family caregiver benefit for children, respectively. Finally, subsection 2.6.7 looks at the use of special benefits by self-employed persons who have opted into the EI program. For the purpose of the following section, EI special benefit claims refer to EI claims for which at least 1 dollar of special benefits was paid.^{Footnote 97}

2.6.1 Employment Insurance special benefit claims overview

The number of new EI special benefit claims went from 671,300 in FY2021 to 704,600 in FY2122 (consult Table 44). Claims established for parental benefits increased the most (+28,800), followed by claims for sickness benefits (+12,110) and claims for maternity benefits (+10,000). This increase could be due, in part, to the different sets of EI temporary measures that facilitate access to EI benefits during the reporting period (consult Section 2.1). Among the 3 types of caregiver benefits, the number of new claims remained relatively constant in FY2122 compared to FY2021.

• Note: Data may not add up to total due to rounding. Includes all claims for which at least $1 in EI special benefit was paid. New claims established by benefit type may not sum as claimants can receive multiple benefit types on a single claim.
• * Starting in FY2021, data on family caregiver benefits for adults and children are included in the total number of special benefit claims, which could affect comparisons with previous years. They were previously excluded due to the incompatibility of administrative data sources.
• Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance (EI) administrative data. Data on maternity, parental and sickness benefits are based on a 10% sample of EI administrative data, whereas data on compassionate care benefits, family caregiver benefits for adults and family caregiver benefits for children are based on a 100% sample.

Similar to previous years, sickness benefits continued to represent almost two thirds (65.6%) of special benefit claims established in FY2122. During the same period, 34.3% and 25.1% of special benefit claims included parental and maternity benefits, respectively. Approximately 1.8% of all special benefit claims included family caregiver benefits for adults, 1.0% had compassionate care benefits, and 0.8% included family caregiver benefits for children.^{Footnote 98}

The total amount paid out in special benefits reached $7.7 billion for FY2122. Amounts paid have increased for all benefit types compared to FY2021.

In FY2122, women established a larger share (61.3%) of special benefit claims than men (38.7%). This breakdown of claims by gender remained virtually unchanged from previous fiscal years. Women also continued to receive a greater share of the amounts paid in special benefits than men during FY2122 (80.3% and 19.7%, respectively). This is mainly because only women can receive maternity benefits, a higher share of women than men receive parental benefits, and on average, men who receive parental benefits receive fewer weeks of benefits than women.

By age, claimants under 45 years continued to account for two thirds (67.5%) of new special benefit claims and receive the largest share of the total amount paid in special benefits (82.6%) in FY2122.

During FY2122, the calculation of the weekly benefit rate varied due to the different sets of EI temporary measures. Consequently, results on weekly benefit rates are reported for 3 distinct periods (consult Section 2.1). Excluding extended parental benefits, which are paid at a lower benefit rate than other types of special benefits (consult subsection 2.6.2), the average weekly benefit rate was $553 for special benefit claims established during the first half of FY2122. It was $503 for claims established during the 2-month period in fall 2021, and $508 for claims established in the last 4 months of FY2122.

For all types of special benefits combined, the proportion of claims receiving the maximum weekly benefit rate was 49.5%, 46.0% and 44.7%, respectively, for the first half of FY2122, the 2-month period in fall 2021, and the last 4 months of FY2122. The share of claimants receiving the minimum weekly benefit rate of $500 (or $300 for extended parental benefits) in the first half of FY2122 was 37.7%. Similarly, the share of claimants receiving the minimum $300 weekly benefit rate (or $180 for extended parental benefits) was 9.0% during the 2-month period in fall 2021.

2.6.2 Employment Insurance maternity and parental benefits

EI maternity benefits are available to eligible persons who cannot work because they are pregnant or have recently given birth. EI maternity claimants need to provide Service Canada with a signed statement attesting to their pregnancy and their expected or actual date of delivery. Qualified claimants may receive up to 15 weeks of maternity benefits. Benefits can begin to be paid as early as 12 weeks prior to the expected date of birth and can end as late as 17 weeks after the child’s actual birth date.

EI parental benefits are available to eligible parents who take a leave from work to care for a newborn or recently adopted child or children. Claimants must provide a declaration as to the newborn’s date of birth or, for the purpose of an adoption, the date of the child’s placement and the name and address of the adoption authority. Parents must choose between standard parental benefits or extended parental benefits.

Standard parental benefits provide up to 40 weeks of benefits paid over a maximum of 12 months (this includes the additional 5 weeks of benefits available to parents who share parental benefits). A parent cannot receive more than 35 weeks of standard benefits. The benefit rate is 55% of weekly insurable earnings up to a maximum of $595 in 2021 and $638 in 2022.

Extended parental benefits provide up to 69 weeks of benefits paid over a maximum of 18 months (this includes the additional 8 weeks of benefits available to parents who share parental benefits). A parent cannot receive more than 61 weeks of extended benefits. The benefit rate is 33% of weekly insurable earnings up to a maximum of $357 in 2021 and $383 in 2022.

Due to the different sets of EI temporary measures, the calculation of the weekly benefit rate parents were entitled to receive varied during the reporting period. Different minimum weekly benefit rates were also introduced in some periods of FY2122 (consult Section 2.1).

Parents can share and use parental benefits at the same time or different times within 12 months (standard parental benefits) or 18 months (extended parental benefits) of birth or adoption. When parental benefits are shared, only 1 parent needs to serve a one-week waiting period. Parents must choose the same parental benefits option (standard or extended) when they apply for benefits. The choice of the first parent who completes the application is binding on other parents. Once parental benefits have been paid out to any eligible parent, they cannot change their duration option but may change how they share the weeks of benefits.

It should be noted that the maternity and parental benefits offered under the EI program are available across Canada with the exception of Quebec. For parents who reside in Quebec, the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) has provided eligible salaried workers and self-employed persons with comparable benefits since January 1, 2006.