OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says 539,000 people were getting regular employment insurance benefits in November, virtually unchanged from the previous month.

The agency says the number of EI beneficiaries in November fell in Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, but rose slightly in British Columbia and Quebec.

Ontario continued a two-year-long series of declines and Nova Scotia, recorded a third consecutive month in which the number of EI recipients fell.

Nationally, the number of people making initial and renewal EI claims edged down 0.8 per cent to 238,300 in November.

Claims were down 4.2 per cent in Ontario and grew by 5.7 per cent in Manitoba and 5.0 per cent in Saskatchewan.

There was little or no change in the other provinces.