Weekly unemployment claims fell for the third two consecutive weeks, reversing a trend indicated at the end of 2009. This also follows an end-of-the-year spike in new claims. Initial claims are still higher than last summer, but are now tracking lower than a year ago, both in initial claims and overall claims for unemployment benefits. For the week of January 16, 2010, there were 1,266 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, a decrease of 163 from the week before. Altogether 15,052 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 733 from a week ago and 1,358 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 5,006 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 64 more than a week ago. In addition, there were 3,168 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is an increase of 137 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