J.P. MOCZULSKI
Statistics Canada says 667,400 people were getting EI benefits in April, virtually unchanged from the previous month.
But the number of people on EI has dropped 19.5 per cent or 161,900 from the peak of 829,300 reached in June, 2009.
The agency says the number of EI claims filed in April was also little changed from the month before, although claims, too, have been trending down since last spring.
The number of Albertans on EI fell by 2,500 to 49,900 in April, the sixth straight monthly decline.
On the other hand, Ontario saw the number of EI recipients increase slightly after six consecutive months of declines.
Despite the blip, the number of Ontario beneficiaries has dropped by 75,900, or 26.5 per cent since June, 2009, the fastest rate of decline of all the provinces.