Canada’s Employment Insurance Expands in February

The number of Canadians receiving regular employment insurance benefits increased by 3.6%, or 53,000, to 1.5 million people in February, data showed on Thursday.

The reading follows an 11.2% increase in January, according to data by Statistics Canada.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) showed that employment increased by 259,000 in February, following two months of decline.

Meanwhile, unemployment in Canada decreased to 1.7 million, of which 1.4 million were looking for work and 300,000 who had a connection to a job, which results from either temporary layoff or beginning a new job in the near future.