The month of July saw a spike in Employment Insurance recipients in BC according to Stats Canada.
The month-over-month comparison saw an increase 1.8%. “The number of people receiving regular benefits was 50,980 people – in June the number was 50, 240 so it’s up by 740 people,” said Vince Ferrao, labour division analyst.
The largest demographic collecting benefits were in the 25-54 age category at 33,000.
Thousands of residents also made the effort to apply for benefits this summer.
Ferrao says a dramatic event led to the increase. “That’s up 12.1% which may reflect forest fires and that prompted a provincial state of emergency from July 7th to September 15th.”
In Canada, 536,550 people collected Employment Insurance in July, an increase of 1.3% when compared to June.