The Quinte region followed the national and provincial trends when it comes to the number of people collecting Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in February.
Nationally 388,000 people were on EI in February, up 3%, while in Ontario 114,660 people were collecting the benefit, up almost 15%.
Meanwhile in the Belleville Census Metropolitan Area which includes Belleville, Quinte West, Stirling-Rawdon and Tyendinaga-Deseronto, 1,060 people received EI in February, up around 10% from 960 from January.
However, when compared on an annual basis the number of people collecting EI in the Belleville area in February was 35% lower than in the same month last year.
