The number of people receiving employment insurance benefits (EI) in B.C. has seen a jump compared to the year before that is “higher than most provinces,” an economist says.

Statistics Canada data shows that people receiving regular EI benefits increased across the country by 1.6 per cent, which is an increase of 8,900 people, in November 2025 compared to the month before.

However, across the 12 months leading up to November, this reflected a 16.1 per cent increase, meaning an additional 78,000 people were receiving the benefits.

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These numbers from StatCan reflect people receiving regular EI benefits, meaning they have temporarily or permanently lost their job through no fault of their own, and are available for and able to work.

Vincent Ferrao, analyst with Statistics Canada, says this could reflect that employers are hesitant to bring on new employees.

“I would say across the country, there is a lot of uncertainty by employers in taking on new staff, because things change quickly, so it’s difficult to operate in that level of uncertainty,” Ferrao said.

“So it could be that they’re holding on to their staff and not hiring more people.”

While B.C. didn’t lead the increase across the country, it did see the second highest percentage increase across all provinces.

Alberta saw the highest with a 23.7 per cent increase (13,000 people), followed by B.C. with an increase of 21.5 per cent (10,000 people), for the year.

“We’re seeing increases in B.C. that are, maybe not the highest in Canada, but certainly higher than most provinces,” Schuetze said.

Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s minister of jobs, says that while B.C. had the second highest percentage increase in people receiving EI, the province is still among the lowest per capita.

“No doubt that there’s challenges that we’re dealing with, particularly from down south, but we have the lowest per capita EI recipients in the country,” Kahlon said.

“We still have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, and of course, the tariffs and the impacts of that are having impacts in forestry and a whole host of manufacturing related sectors, but despite that, we’re starting to see a pickup in investments.”

Nanaimo and Victoria see annual increases

Victoria also saw a slight decrease in the number of people receiving EI from the month before, down 0.3, which is 10 people, however, the annual number jumped by 21.2 per cent (550 people).

Schuetze said this highlights that some cities are being hit harder by changes in the economy than others, but it also could reflect challenges in finding a new job.

“Nanaimo seems to be getting hit a little bit more than Victoria currently, and part of that might be just that once you lose a job in Nanaimo, it is harder to find another job, and that’s being reflected in the bigger percentage increases in the number of workers that are on EI and Nanaimo compared to Victoria,” he said.

Kahlon also pointed to the low unemployment rates in B.C., Victoria and Nanaimo.

“Victoria has the lowest unemployment rate in the country. Nanaimo has the third lowest in the entire province,” he said. “So we’re hoping that we’re going to be able to transition folks to other employment.”