Not as many Albertans took out Employment Insurance (EI) claims to start the year.
Statistics Canada numbers show that in January 2017, only 91,700 people in the province received EI benefits. It’s a drop of 6,100, or 6.2 percent month-over-month.
ATB Financial said in a news release that it’s the first notable decrease Alberta has seen since September 2014.
The bank also says that it does appear to be good news; it’s a little more complicated than that. While it can mean that people are finding jobs, there’s also the possibility that people are running out of eligible weeks of EI benefits.
A recently-published labour force survey for the province would seem to suggest the latter, as it shows that there were a few jobs created in December, but virtually none in January.
– Posted by BET
