Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, 2023

Released: 2024-10-30

New data from the 2023 Employment Insurance Coverage Survey (EICS) provide an overview of who has access to regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, and why people may not have access to benefits. The survey also covers Canadian parents' use of the maternity and parental benefits available under the EI program. All these benefits provide temporary income support while people are not working.

In 2023, an average of 1.1 million Canadians were unemployed at any point during the year. Two-thirds of these people (66.0% or 744,000) had contributed to the EI program. This contribution rate was up from 59.2% in 2022 and above the average from 2017 to 2019 (62.8%).

To be eligible for regular EI benefits, one must have contributed to the EI program, have a valid job separation (for example, were laid off or quit for just cause), and have accumulated enough insurable hours (see the infographic "Employment Insurance coverage and eligibility in 2023").

The EI eligibility rate is the number of people who had accumulated enough insurable hours to be eligible to receive regular EI benefits, expressed as a proportion of all those who were unemployed in 2023, had contributed to EI and had a valid job separation (for example, laid off or quit for just cause).

The eligibility rate in 2023 was 83.1%, down 6.5 percentage points from 2022. This was just below the average eligibility rate of 84.7% during the period from 2017 to 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. For part of 2022, eligibility requirements were still temporarily changed in response to the pandemic, which may have contributed to a higher eligibility rate. In 2023, eligibility requirements for regular EI had returned to standard requirements.

Chart 1 
Eligibility rate falls in 2023

Infographic 1 
Employment Insurance coverage and eligibility in 2023

Employment Insurance eligibility rate highest in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador

In 2023, eligibility rates for regular EI benefits were highest in the Atlantic provinces, led by Prince Edward Island (96.1%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (95.6%). This is consistent with historical trends in the Atlantic provinces, where both the contribution rate and eligibility rate have remained relatively high.

Eligibility rates were lowest in Alberta (74.7%), Ontario (80.1%) and Saskatchewan (80.5%) in 2023. In all 10 provinces, eligibility rates were down compared with 2022.

Eligibility rates fall most among people aged 25 to 44

The EI eligibility rate among people aged 25 to 44 was 83.5% in 2023, down 10.4 percentage points from 93.9% in 2022. The eligibility rates for people aged 45 to 54 (95.2%) and those 55 years and older (95.0%) were each little changed compared with 2022.

For youth aged 15 to 24, the eligibility rate was 57.1% in 2023, down 7.8 percentage points from a year earlier. Lower eligibility rates indicate that fewer people had accumulated the insurable hours prior to unemployment needed to be eligible to receive regular EI benefits.

Youth EI eligibility rates have historically been lower than the rate for older age groups, as youth are less likely to accumulate enough insurable work hours. They are also more likely to have an invalid job separation; reasons not deemed valid by the EI program include voluntarily leaving a job without just cause, including leaving a job to go back to school.

Chart 2 
Eligibility rate lower among youth and people aged 25 to 44

Contribution rate increases for women while eligibility rate falls

In 2023, the EI eligibility rate remained lower for women (76.4%) than for men (88.6%). Moreover, from 2022 to 2023, the eligibility rate fell more for women (-7.5 percentage points) than for men (-4.7 percentage points). At the same time, proportionally more women had contributed to the EI program before becoming unemployed in 2023 (64.2%) than in 2022 (52.2%).

Women were more likely to have last worked in part-time employment (31.7%) before unemployment, compared to men (17.0%). Part-time workers are less likely to have accumulated enough insurable hours prior to unemployment, a factor which may have contributed to a lower eligibility rate among women in 2023.

Maternity and parental benefits

In addition to regular benefits, there are other types of EI benefits, including maternity and parental benefits. The EICS surveys one parent per household, usually recent mothers, and then asks about the benefits their spouse or partner may also have taken.

In 2023, more than three-quarters (78.3%) of parents with a child aged 18 months or younger had paid EI premiums before the birth or adoption of their child. Among these parents, the vast majority of whom were mothers, 92.2% received maternity or parental benefits, compared to 94.2% in 2022 and 92.1% in 2021.

Among the spouses or partners of surveyed parents (the vast majority of whom were fathers), 49.3% had claimed or intended to claim paternity or parental benefits in 2023, up from 46.6% in 2022 and 42.2% in 2021.

In Quebec, maternity and parental benefits are offered through the Québec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP), and historically a higher proportion of spouses or partners receive benefits in Quebec compared with other provinces. However, the gap has narrowed in recent years. In 2023, 80.2% of spouses or partners in Quebec had claimed or intended to claim paternity or parental benefits from QPIP, down from 92.9% in 2022. In provinces outside Quebec, 39.3% of spouses or partners claimed or intended to claim benefits in 2023, up 8.0 percentage points from a year earlier.

Chart 3 
Percentage of spouses claiming benefits rises in 2023

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).