Number of Albertans on EI declines for 6th straight month
Total number of beneficiaries drops 3.8% to 79,200 in April, the lowest level the province has seen in a year
About 3,200 fewer Albertans received Employment Insurance benefits in April than in March, marking the sixth consecutive monthly decline in the province.
The 3.8 per cent decline doesn't necessarily mean fewer people are unemployed, as not everyone who's out of work qualifies for EI and the benefits only last for so long.
But Statistics Canada says other data shows employment in the province has generally "trended upward since the autumn of 2016, following a downward trend that began in 2015."
The number of people receiving EI payments in Calgary, specifically, fell 2.5 per cent in April to 27,590.
In Edmonton, the number was down 3.9 per cent to 27,120.
This was the sixth consecutive monthly decline for the province.
At the same time, the number of EI claims submitted in Alberta in April was up by 4.7 per cent — on a seasonally adjusted basis.
The unadjusted numbers were down 1.8 per cent.
"The number of claims provides an indication of the number of people who could become beneficiaries," Statistics Canada said in a release.