Number of people on EI goes down

The number of people claiming employment insurance in the Oshawa area has gone down.

According to new numbers from Statistics Canada, 4,330 people in the Oshawa census metropolitan area – which also includes Whitby and Clarington – claimed regular income benefits in April, down from 4,480 the month before.

This also marks a decrease over the year before, with April 2015 seeing 5,140 people claiming benefits.

Across the country, the number of people claiming regular income benefits fell to 538,310 people, marking a decrease of 0.9 per cent compared to March, or about 4,900 people.

According to Statistics Canada, five provinces saw decreases in April compared to March, with Ontario seeing the largest drop at 2.4 per cent.

However, that number is still higher than April 2015, when 526,040 people were claiming benefits.