Weekly unemployment claims continued their sharp rise last week continuing an upward trend over the last couple of months to reach a similar level to a year ago. For the week of November 27, 2010, there were 1,795 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance, an increase of 394 from the week before. Altogether 10,160 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 597 from a week ago and 1,685 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 2,172 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 213 fewer than a week ago. In addition, there were 624 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is a decrease of 72 from the week before. The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/. Previously released Unemployment Weekly Reports and other UI reports can be found at:http://www.vtlmi.info/lmipub.htm#uc