EI Program Characteristics for the period of August 9, 2026 to September 5, 2026

Province / Territory	Economic Region Code	Economic Region Name ^{Footnote 1}	Unemployment Rate ^{Footnote 2}^{Footnote 3}^{Footnote 4}	Number of Insured Hours Required to Qualify for Regular Benefits	Minimum Number of Weeks Payable for Regular Benefits	Maximum Number of Weeks Payable for Regular Benefits	Number of Best Weeks Required for Benefit Calculation
Ontario	33	Kitchener	7.8	630	17	40	20

Violations from previous EI claims may increase the number of hours required to qualify for EI benefits. For more information on eligibility requirements.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

The boundaries of these regions are determined by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). For geographic descriptions and maps of EI economic regions, see the ESDC website: Canada's EI Economic Regions

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Footnote 2

The regional rates of unemployment are produced by Statistics Canada for use by the Employment Insurance program.

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Footnote 3

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this table is correct. If any discrepancies are found, regional rates of unemployment for the Employment Insurance program produced and published by Statistics Canada take precedent.

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Footnote 4

The monthly regional unemployment rates for Employment Insurance purposes (except for the territories) are seasonally adjusted 3-month-moving averages.

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Date modified:: 2019-03-01