Ontario sees only EI increase in April

The number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance benefits flat-lined in April with payments rising only in Ontario after several months of declines, government data released Friday shows.

In April, 667,400 people received regular EI payments, about the same number recorded in March, Statistics Canada said.

In Alberta, the number of beneficiaries fell for the sixth-straight month and by 2,500. Ontario wasn’t so lucky, with recipients rising by nearly the same amount. Numbers in the rest of the provinces were virtually unchanged from the month before.

Overall, the number of people receiving EI has dropped 19.5% since peaking at 829,300 in June 2009, StatsCan said.

There were 227,800 new EI applicants in April, down slightly from the previous month.

Canada added the most jobs on record in April, data released last month shows. Employment increased by 109,000, about four times the pace economists had projected.

“Although there was little change in April, the number of (initial) claims received has declined by 30.5% since the start of the downward trend in May 2009,” StatsCan said.

The biggest improvements have been seen in Alberta, Ontario and B.C.