Employment Insurance Statistics - Monthly (EIS)

Detailed information for December 2004

This survey is conducted to release the official statistics which report on the operation of the Employment Insurance Program.

Data release - February 22, 2005

• Description
• Data sources and methodology

Description

This survey is conducted to release the official statistics which report on the operation of the Employment Insurance Program and to provide complementary labour market statistics at the national and provincial level, as well as for sub-provincial areas. The statistics released include the number of beneficiaries, types of benefits, benefit payments, the number of claims, as well as the number of disqualifications and disentitlements. Estimates are also produced by detailed age and for 140 occupation groups. These statistics are not usually covered by other Statistics Canada surveys.

Statistical activity

Together, three monthly surveys tell a more complete story of current labour market events. These surveys are: the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH) and the Employment Insurance Statistics (EIS). The LFS focuses on its strengths: timeliness and demographic analysis of the labour market. SEPH reports, which come out later each month, show greater detail on industry and wages. The EIS provide substantial detail by geography.

• Additional documentation

Reference period: The number of beneficiaries represents a count of persons who qualified for employment insurance benefits during the Labour Force Survey reference week, usually containing the 15th day of the month.

Collection period: Employment Insurance beneficiary micro data file: First working day of the month. Employment Insurance supplementary aggregate data file: Second last working day of the month.

Subjects

• Employment and unemployment
• Employment insurance, social assistance and other transfers
• Labour

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The number of EI beneficiaries represents a count of persons who qualified for employment insurance benefits during the Labour Force Survey reference week, usually the week containing the 15th day of the month. Therefore, individuals who exhaust their benefits the week before the survey reference period or who start to collect benefits the week after are not included in the count of beneficiaries for that month.

The number of claims represents a count of persons who made a claim during the reference month. Similarly, the number of disqualifications and disentitlements is based on the set of all claims processed during the reference month. Finally, the benefit payments and the number of weeks paid cover the whole reference month.

Instrument design

This methodology does not apply.

Sampling

This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.

This methodology does not apply.

Data sources

Data are extracted from administrative files.

Claim and benefit payments aggregates are received monthly from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.

A monthly microdata file at the beneficiary level, containing detailed information such as benefit types and amount received, is provided by Service Canada.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

In order to prevent any data disclosure, confidentiality analysis is done using the Statistics Canada Generalized Disclosure Control System (G-Confid). G-Confid is used for primary suppression (direct disclosure) as well as for secondary suppression (residual disclosure). Direct disclosure occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of or dominated by few enterprises while residual disclosure occurs when confidential information can be derived indirectly by piecing together information from different sources or data series.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

Employment Insurance Statistics Program data are produced from an administrative data source and may, from time to time, be affected by changes to the Employment Insurance Act or administrative procedures. An annual revision is undertaken each spring.