For the first time since last summer, weekly unemployment claims fell for two consecutive weeks. This follows an end-of-the-year spike in new claims. Weekly results had been trending upward through the fall. Initial claims are still higher than last summer, but are now tracking lower than a year ago. For the week of January 9, 2010, there were 1,429 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, a decrease of 25 from the week before. Altogether 15,785 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 1,111 from a week ago and 1,215 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 4,942 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 66 more than a week ago. In addition, there were 3,031 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is an increase of 246 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