Weekly unemployment claims fell last week, offsetting somewhat a recent surge in claims. For the week of December 4, 2010, there were 1,371 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance, a decrease of 424 from the week before. Altogether 11,345 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 1,185 from a week ago and 2,114 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 2,533 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 361 more than a week ago. In addition, there were 682 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is an increase of 58 from the week before. The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/(link is external). Previously released Unemployment Weekly Reports and other UI reports can be found at:http://www.vtlmi.info/lmipub.htm#uc(link is external) read more