Ahead of today’s federal budget, 506,320 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in November, up 15,300 or 3.1% from October.

The number of Canadians receiving regular EI benefits rose by 48,700 between November 2007 and November 2008, a 12.3% increase, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

The number of men receiving benefits increased 17.1%, and the number of women, 6.1%, StatsCan said.

The number of regular EI beneficiaries increased in all jurisdictions compared with a year earlier. Ontario (+28.2%), British Columbia (+24.6%), Nunavut (+21.9%) and Yukon (+21.3%) posted the largest year-over-year increases in regular EI beneficiaries.

The number of EI regular beneficiaries increased in most census metropolitan areas in the past year, with the largest year-over-year advances occurring in Oshawa (+99.1%), Windsor (+57.9%) and London (+46.5%).

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