Canadian Employment Insurance payouts up

OTTAWA, May 27 (UPI) -- The number of unemployed Canadians receiving federal Employment Insurance rose by nearly 10,000 to 462,760 in March, the Statistics Canada agency said Tuesday.

However, the number of people receiving regular benefits declined 4.3 percent compared with March 2007, the agency said.

Regular benefit payments in March totaled $783.2 million,

The report showed the number of regular beneficiaries has decreased in most metropolitan areas during the past 12 months, most notably in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where the number of regular EI beneficiaries has dropped 34 percent.

By province and territory, Quebec had the largest number of recipients in March -- 162,100 -- while Nunavut had 300 recipients, StatsCan said.

By gender, compared with March 2007, 4.7 percent fewer men and 5.3 percent fewer women received EI benefits, the report showed.