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Employment Insurance recipients continue to decline in BC and Prince George

About 1,750 people in Prince George collected benefits through Ottawa’s Employment Insurance program in August.

BC continued to see a downward trend in the number of people picking up the funding.

When you break it all down, both regions have been experiencing a downward trend for a while.

“For the year-over-year comparison, we see noticeably larger declines for both regions, 9.3% for Prince George and 8% for the province. The number of beneficiaries was unusually high in the latter half of 2016 thanks to policy changes that came into effect,” says Gordon Song, Statistics Canada analyst.

In BC, over 50,500 people received some form of benefits in August.

However, the number of claims in the province went down by 16.9% – that’s mostly due to claims increase in July due to the wildfires.

In Canada, the outlook was eerily similar according to Song. “The number of people receiving regular EI benefits was down 1.8% or 9,600 people. Canada ended up being down a larger percentage than BC.”

Alberta led all western provinces with 67,190 people collecting EI, while Quebec had the most
out of all the provinces nationwide.

Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].

Brendan Pawliw
Brendan Pawliw
Since moving to Prince George in 2015, Brendan has covered local sports including the WHL’s Prince George Cougars, Prince George Spruce Kings, UNBC Timberwolves, Cariboo Cougars AAA, and Northern Capitals U18 female hockey teams. Career highlights include play-by-play during the Spruce Kings' BCHL championship runs in 2018 and 2019, including the Doyle Cup win. He also covered the 2019 National Junior A Championship, the 2017 Telus Cup, the 2022 World Women’s Curling Championship, and the 2022 BC Summer Games. Brendan is the news voice on 94.3 The Goat and Country 97 FM, reporting on crime, real estate, labour, and environmental issues. Outside of work, he officiates box lacrosse and fastball, sits on the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame board, and co-hosts the Hockey North podcast.

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