EI Before the Crisis

The new EI Monitoring and Assessment Report provides some useful information about access before the crisis.

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/employment/ei/reports/eimar_2008/index.shtml

In 2007, about one in five (17.7%)  of  EI premium payers who were laid-off  did not qualify for access to EI due specifically to a lack of enough hours of insured work, including 66% of (mainly women) part-time workers and  54% of young workers.  That amounted to  99,000 persons  in an average month.

Of those who got into the system in 2007,  more than one in four  (30% of women and 27% of men) exhausted their benefits before finding a new job. (See Chapter 5.)
Fewer premium payers would qualify today  due to  cuts in hours worked and the sharp rise in part-time work,  and we will see a rise in the proportion of exhaustees among those who get in because of the shrinkage in jobs.

Which is why access to EI will remain a  key issue, despite those Conservative claims that there is no access issue.

One comment

  • julienne talbot

    J’ai 58ans, mes prestations d’assurance-emploi se terminent le16 mai 2009 incluant les 5 semaines de prolongation. Ai -je dois à d’autres indemnités d’assurance-emploi ou autres (en prolongation ) dû à mon âge. Merci de me répondre et veuillez accepter mes salutations les plus distinguées.

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