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The receipt of Employment Insurance (EI) by reason for job separation is examined in this report using data from the COEP survey, the Record of Employment (ROE) database and the Status Vector (SV).

The COEP survey is conducted by Statistics Canada for Strategic Evaluations at Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC). The survey interviews samples of individuals who had a job separation during specified reference periods. The first interview (wave 1) occurs within a year of the job separation and the second interview (wave 2) is conducted about nine months after the first interview. Information collected by the COEP survey includes background demographics on the individual and household, reason for job separation, receipt of EI benefits, information on job search activities and outcomes, income, assets and debts, expenditures, and training.

For the period from October 2000 to September 2001, a total of 14,567 Canadians who had a change or an interruption in their employment activity were surveyed by the COEP survey. The analysis presented in this report compares this most recent period with the periods immediately preceding and following the 1996 EI reforms by grouping the (quarterly) cohorts of COEP data into the following periods:

• Pre-EI Reform (cohorts 1 to 4): Participants for these interviews had a job separation in one of the four quarters (1995Q3 - 1996Q2) prior to EI reform;
• Post-EI Reform (cohorts 7 to 10): Participants for these interviews had a job separation in one of the four quarters (1997Q1 - 1997Q4) after EI reform; and
• Most Recent (cohorts 22 to 25): Participants for these interviews had a job separation in one of the four quarters from 2000Q4 to 2001Q3.

The pre-EI reform period is compared to the post-EI reform period as a means of determining the changes associated with EI reform. No analysis is done on the period during EI reform (1996Q3 - 1996Q4) because the implementation of EI reform was not complete and the analysis would be quite complex. In addition to comparing the pre- and post-EI reform periods, the most recent period (2000Q4 to 2001Q3) is compared to these previous two periods as a measure of the longer-run effects of EI reform.

The analysis presented in this report also uses administrative data from the ROE database in conjunction with SV data to help build a database for different Human Resource Centres (HRCs) in Canada. An ROE is a registered document employers must complete and provide to each employee who stops working for them. The completed ROE indicates how long the employee worked for the employer, how many hours the employee worked, the amount of insured earnings, and why the employee is no longer working for the employer. The ROE is the key form in establishing an EI claim and is used to determine if a person can qualify for EI benefits, how much the benefits will be and how long the benefits can be paid.

The SV file is a derivative of HRDC's 'Benefits and Overpayments' (BNOP) file, which is used to administer EI claims and pay benefits. The BNOP file contains information from the claimant's application for EI benefits, the claimant's bi-weekly report cards, and administrative decisions made by the Commission on the claimant's eligibility. Types of data on the BNOP file include:

• characteristics of the claimant;
• benefit rates and claim durations; and
• a week-by-week account of claimant activity during the life of the claim.

In this report, SV data is used along with ROE data to analyze the effect of regional HRC managers on EI receipt rates in the case of persons who quit their jobs or were dismissed. This "regional" effect is determined only for quits and the dismissals because these two reasons for job separation offer an HRC manager more discretion in allocating EI benefits.

Using these data sources, this report takes a close look at each reason for job separation listed on the ROE form. Claimant characteristics and EI receipt rates are also examined using statistical analysis and (probit model) estimation techniques.