The Employment Insurance Status Vector (EISV) is an administrative dataset provided to Statistics Canada by Employment and Social Development Canada. The variables contained in this dataset serve the primary purpose of determining eligibility and entitlement to Employment Insurance benefits administered by Service Canada, as well as tracking information about ongoing and completed claims. Although they have been packaged in a convenient format, it is important to note that, like all administrative data, they were not originally collected for statistical purposes, and there are challenges associated to this fact.

The file is a historical file and contains all Employment Insurance claims captured by the system (the vast majority of claims) from 1997 until the point in which the current snapshot was taken. This means that the finality of the information differs over time: older claims rarely change between versions, some claims in the last several months may undergo substantial changes if new information received by Service Canada that causes a recalculation, and some claims will not be present until the next version (if the claim was submitted after the date of the snapshot, even though that claim would start prior based on last day worked). The mechanics of how claims are determined are based on the 52 weeks prior to commencement of the claim, so most significant changes to claims between versions are concentrated in that timeframe.

The EISV is comprised of six datasets: one header file that contains information specific to the claim that can be expressed by a single value and five trailer files that are expressed in a way to save disk space. On these files, many lines are combined into one by indexing variables. Two trailer files (allowance and interview) are no longer significantly updated by ESDC and only contain old claims.

Header

The header file includes benefit rate, waiting period type, basic geography, age, sex, number of dependents, last claim type of claim, payable and paid benefit weeks, some basic maternity and parental information, one reason for separation from a Record of Employment (ROE) linked to the claim as well as occupation and industry information about that employment, some basic training information if applicable, and -- for completed claims – information about how and why the claim ended. There are also some self-declared (by the claimant) indicators like aboriginal, disability, visible minority, self-employed, and social assistance, but with a low “response rate”. This file is up to date.

Benefit trailer

This trailer file provides information about the EI payments made by each claim on a week-by-week basis. For each week, the claim phasing, benefit type, payment type, and payment amount are described. For payment types where the payment amount was reduced below the benefit rate, the largest reduction is coded. This file is up to date.

Earnings trailer

This trailer file provides information about the earnings that EI claimants reported, if any earnings were reported. The exact amount of earnings per week code is provided. EI beneficiaries can work while on claim and still potentially receive benefits. This file is up to date.

Disqualification and Disentitlements (D/D)

Certain conditions can cause employment insurance benefits to be temporarily or permanently suspended (for that claim). This trailer file tracks the D/Ds that occurred on every claim and the coding for that particular D/D, though it must be noted that it includes even the ones that were rescinded so extra consideration is needed to use this file. This file is up to date.

Interview trailer

This file tracks interviews completed to retain benefits. The last claim tracked by this file commenced week code 1852, which is in June 2001.

Allowance trailer

This file tracks the payments of allowances and the amounts of those allowances. The information on the types of allowances is not available, though not many claimants received it. The last claim tracked by the file commenced week code 2026, which is in October 2004.