The standard measure of the UI Recipiency Rate (Standard Rate) has fallen from the 1970s to the 1990s, suggesting an erosion in the effectiveness of the UI system. This rate declined sharply from the mid-seventies to the early eighties. From the early eighties to the nineties, the Standard Rate increased modestly, but is still below its mid-seventies level. While researchers have identified many reasons for the low UI recipiency rates over the past twenty years, many questions remain as to the causes behind the low rate and steps that policy and program officials might take to increase it.

While the Standard Rate is the most commonly used measure to evaluate the effectiveness of the UI program, researchers have developed alternative UI recipiency rates to address some of the limitations of the standard measure. The standard measure is expressed as the ratio of the insured unemployed (i.e., the number of regular UI claimants) to the total number unemployed. Alternative measures have been designed to better capture the effectiveness of the UI program by including the full range of UI programs available to the unemployed (beyond the regular program) and by more accurately defining the UI target population (a subset of unemployed workers).