It looks like the federal government's new EI benefits are coming just in time.
The number of employment insurance recipients in Alberta has nearly doubled since last year, according to Statistics Canada.
Data released Thursday showed that Alberta saw a two-per-cent jump in EI recipients from December 2015 to January 2016, up to 63,800.
However, those numbers become more shocking when compared to January 2015 — in the past year, EI recipients in the province have grown 91 per cent.
Saskatchewan also saw a large increase, with a 40 per cent rise in EI claims over the same period.
EI recipients across Canada went up by more than seven per cent last year, largely due to the increases in Alberta, StatCan reported. There are now 543,100 EI claimants across Canada.
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