The Weekly Review, October 28 to November 1, 2024

Employment Insurance eligibility rate falls in 2023

The Employment Insurance (EI) eligibility rate in 2023 was 83.1%, down 6.1 percentage points from 2022. For part of 2022, eligibility requirements were still temporarily changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have contributed to a higher eligibility rate. In 2023, eligibility requirements for regular EI had returned to standard requirements.

Source: Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, 2023

Paper and primary metal manufacturers continue to be the top energy consumers in 2023

Energy consumption by the manufacturing sector decreased by 1.5% from 2022 to 2 148.9 petajoules in 2023. The top energy consumers were paper manufacturing (532.8 petajoules) and primary metal manufacturing (521.4 petajoules), which together accounted for almost half (49.1%) of all energy consumed by the manufacturing sector.

Source: Energy consumption by the manufacturing sector, 2023

Young families building their net worth through increasing housing values

Families where the highest income earner was under 35 years of age experienced the largest percent increase in their real median net worth from 2019 to 2023, up 179% during this period to $159,100. The biggest gainers were young homeowners. The median net worth of younger families who owned their principal residence increased by $142,800 from 2019 to $457,100 in 2023.

Source: Survey of Financial Security, 2023

Dividend income rises at a slower rate in 2022 than in 2021

Dividend income increased for the top income groups from 2021 to 2022, but at a much slower rate than from 2020 to 2021. Average dividend income increased for the top 1% by 0.8% to $97,100 in 2022, while the top 0.1% (+4.6% to $479,700) and the top 0.01% (+1.5% to $2,178,600) also saw increases.

Source: High-income Canadians, 2022

Rates of human trafficking in Nova Scotia and Ontario higher than national average

Since 2013, the highest average annual rates of police-reported human trafficking among the provinces generally have been documented in Nova Scotia and Ontario. In 2023, Nova Scotia recorded 6.3 incidents per 100,000 population and Ontario recorded 2.1 incidents, both well above the national average (1.4 incidents).

Source: Trafficking in persons in Canada, 2023

Ethnocultural diversity in Canadian cities

The population of Canadian cities is made up of people who come from all over the world. When comparing capital cities across all 10 provinces, Toronto (55.7%), in Ontario, Edmonton (42.8%), in Alberta, and Winnipeg (34.4%), in Manitoba, had the largest proportions of racialized populations. Overall, the three most common places of birth, other than Canada, are India (1.2 million people), China (830,980) and the Philippines (757,410).

Source: Ethnocultural diversity in Canadian cities