Teachers, Contract and Part-Time Workers: Hours Still Count

Every insurable hour counts, from every job

EI does not care whether an hour was part-time, casual, on contract or full-time. What matters is that it was paid work in insurable employment during your qualifying period (usually the last 52 weeks, or since your last claim started if that is shorter). Hours from all employers are added together, and each employer reports its share on a Record of Employment (ROE).

• Two part-time jobs: 18 hours a week at a pharmacy for 40 weeks (720 hours) is already enough in every region in 2026, even without the second job.
• Part-time plus a short contract: 300 hours of weekend work plus a 10-week contract at 35 hours (350 hours) is 650 hours, enough where the requirement is 630 or less. Check your region.
• Back-to-back contracts: three 3-month contracts at 37.5 hours a week add up to roughly 1,460 hours, which also gives more weeks of benefits.

Self-employment and work that is not insurable don't count toward regular benefits. Part-time pay does affect the amount: your weekly benefit is 55% of your average insurable earnings over your best 14 to 22 weeks, up to $729 in 2026, so steady low hours give a lower rate. See how many hours you need and best weeks.

Losing one job while keeping another

You don't have to be out of work completely to claim. Under the EI Regulations, the break in earnings is looked at job by job: you need 7 or more days in a row with no work and no pay from the job you lost. So if your 30-hour warehouse job ends but you keep 12 hours a week at a restaurant, you can apply.

The job you keep still matters. You declare its earnings on every report, and they reduce your payment under the working-while-on-claim rules: you keep 50 cents of benefits for each dollar earned, up to 90% of the weekly insurable earnings your claim is based on, then dollar for dollar. The working-while-on-EI calculator shows the effect. You also still need to be available for, and looking for, suitable work beyond the hours you have left; if something limits when you can work, say so on your application.

When a contract ends, and when it doesn't count as a layoff

A fixed-term contract that reaches its end date and isn't renewed is a job lost through no fault of your own. Your employer normally shows this on the ROE as a shortage of work or end of contract, and you then need enough hours and availability like anyone else.

Two situations are treated differently:

• Turning down an extension or renewal. Service Canada's guidance treats passing up an offer to keep working as leaving voluntarily. You then need just cause (leaving was your only reasonable option), or regular benefits can be refused. See quit, fired or laid off.
• Leaving shortly before the end date. If you quit without just cause within 3 weeks of your contract's end date, you can't get regular benefits until that end date.

Under a temporary measure, for claims starting October 11, 2026 to October 9, 2027, only your most recent job separation is reviewed. That helps contract workers who left an earlier job without just cause, as long as the last contract simply ended. It is not permanent.

Teachers: the non-teaching period rule

Section 33 of the EI Regulations adds a condition for people employed in teaching at any point in their qualifying period. It covers teaching in pre-elementary, elementary and secondary schools, including technical and vocational schools, public or private. It does not cover university, college or CEGEP teaching, and it does not cover teaching assistants, principals, daycare staff, bus drivers or office staff unless their duties include teaching part of the curriculum. Those workers follow the ordinary rules.

For covered teachers, regular and sickness benefits are generally not paid for weeks that fall in a non-teaching period: the summer break (mainly July and August), the winter break and the mid-winter or spring break. Exact dates depend on your province and school board, and the breaks between terms at a year-round school count too. Maternity, parental and caregiving benefits are not affected by this rule and can be paid in teaching and non-teaching periods alike.

The rule is lifted if one of three exceptions applies:

1. Your teaching contract has ended. canada.ca treats the contract as finished the day after its last day. Leave (sick, maternity, sabbatical) or a suspension does not end it. If you sign, or verbally agree to, a new contract and there are links between the two (seniority carried over, pension or sick-leave credits, group insurance continuing over the summer), benefits stop from the date you agreed. Weeks paid before that date are not taken back. If you teach for several school boards, every contract must have ended.
2. Your teaching was casual or substitute. This means on-call, occasional replacement work with no set pattern. All of your teaching in the qualifying period must be of this kind. A replacement on a 10-month contract, or a part-time contract for the whole school year, does not count, whatever the collective agreement calls it.
3. You qualify with hours from another occupation. If you have enough insurable hours from non-teaching work to qualify on their own, benefits can be paid, but the rate and weeks are based only on that other work. University or college teaching counts as another occupation here.

Teacher examples

• Term contract, no new contract. Amira replaces a teacher on leave from September to June 30. She has no contract for the fall. Her contract ends, so from July 1 she may get regular benefits if she has the hours and is available for work. On August 15 she accepts a September contract with her seniority carried over: her benefits stop from August 15, and July to mid-August stays paid.
• Daily supply teacher. Ben was on the call-in list all year with no contract. His teaching was casual or substitute, so the non-teaching period rule does not block summer benefits, if he meets the usual conditions.
• Permanent teacher with a summer job. Claire has a permanent contract. Her teaching hours can't support a summer claim, but if her evening job alone gave her enough insurable hours for her region, she could be paid on that job's earnings only.

In a non-teaching period you still have to show you are available for work. Since few teaching jobs open in July, that usually means looking for other work you could reasonably get. If you sign or agree to a new contract while on EI, tell Service Canada right away.

For a decision on your own claim, only Service Canada can tell you: call 1-800-206-7218 or start at canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei.html. MyEI is an independent information and estimate tool and is not affiliated with Service Canada or the Government of Canada. Nothing here is legal advice.