Number of Islanders on EI takes big jump in June

The number of Islanders receiving employment insurance was up sharply in June, continuing a general upward trend that goes back to the end of 2014.

• P.E.I. unemployment rate climbs back up to 11%

The seasonally adjusted number, released by Statistics Canada Thursday, was 7,980, up from 7,490 in May. Nationally, the number of EI recipients was largely unchanged.

As a percentage the increase on P.E.I. was the highest in the country, at 6.5 per cent.

In the early years of the decade the number of Islanders on EI had been on a downward trend. It was running over 9,000 recipients in 2011, and fell to under 7,000 in 2014 before starting to go up again.

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