The amount of people receiving regular employment insurance benefits decreased for the month of June in both Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Statistics Canada reported 69, 740 Albertans received EI benefits in June, a 3.3% drop from May. This was the eight consecutive month Alberta saw a drop. Compared to June of last year, there was a 14.9% drop. StatsCan partially attributes this to an increased number of beneficiaries in May 2016, due to the Fort McMurray wildfires. The number of initial and renewal claims increased from the month before by 8% to 25,090, but is down by 18.6% compared to June of last year.
In Saskatchewan there were 18, 470 people who received EI benefits in June, a 0.9% drop from May. Compared to last June the number of beneficiaries in the province was up 7.8%, the lowest year-over-year increase since January 2015. The amount of initial and renewal claims dropped by 0.8% from May to 7,200, but was up 6% from last year.
Nationally the number of people receiving EI benefits dropped by 1.3%, to a total of 517,200 people. This was the eighth consecutive monthly decline in the number of beneficiaries. Compared to last year the amount was down by 6.8%. Following a decline in May, EI claims rose 2.7% to 236,300 in June.