Canadian jobless claims down in September

The number of Canadians receiving regular federal unemployment benefits declined by 2.7 percent to 549,000 in September, Statistics Canada said Thursday. The monthly decline came after a 4.4 percent jump in August as the country reported a 7.2 percent unemployment rate in September, the agency said. By province, Quebec reported a 19 percent decline in claimants for Employment Insurance in September after seeing a 23.6 percent increase a month earlier. Meanwhile, Newfoundland/Labrador posted a 3 percent gain in EI claims in September on the heels of a 19.8 percent jump in August. By gender on an annual basis, the number of men receiving jobless benefits fell 22.4 percent to 227,800 while women's claims totaled 184,900, down 17.6 percent from September 2010, StatsCan said.