Following two months of declines, people receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in Canada rose by 54,300, or 7.1 percent, according to data released by Statistics Canada on Tuesday.
The number of beneficiaries in September reached 818,000, up 63. 5 percent from October 2008 when employment hit its peak. The data had shown a sharp upward trend from October 2008 to June 2009, but has since leveled off.
Initial and renewal claims of EI in September fell by 14,700, or five percent to 280,700. This data has been trending down since the most recent peak in May 2009.
According to Statistics Canada, in September, the fastest year- over-year rate of increase in the number of EI beneficiaries continued to be among young people under 25, up 91.3 percent.
Young men continued to experience the most pronounced increase, as the number of beneficiaries for this group more than doubled from 20,100 in September 2008 to 41,100 in September 2009. Over the same period, the increase for young women was 68.2 percent.