The number of employment insurance beneficiaries is increasing in Quebec

The number of employment insurance beneficiaries in Quebec increased by 7.4% in the month of July 2022, making it one of the three provinces with the largest increase in the country.

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So 9,000 more Quebecers benefited from employment insurance than last month, according to Statistics Canada data published Thursday.

We found the highest number of beneficiaries in the province of the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) of Montreal, with 49,060 people (+11.5%) in July, followed by Quebec (8,690, + 1.8%).

The CMA of Ottawa-Gatineau, part of Quebec, saw the largest month-on-month increase, up 15.3% to 3,460 beneficiaries.

British Columbia (+9.6%) and Manitoba (+9.2%) were the two other provinces ahead of Quebec in terms of this increase.

Nationally, 506,000 Canadians received EI regular benefits, representing a 2.9% increase between June and July 2022. This is the first jump not associated with health restrictions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.