In January, 20,553 initial claims were filed in Nevada, compared to 23,736 in January 2012. That is a 13.5 percent decrease over the year, the 35th time in the past 38 months that claims have been lower than the year before.Despite an ongoing trend toward claims showing only a small decline over the year, January's 13.5 percent drop was the second largest over the past 13 months, said Bill Anderson, chief economist for Nevada's Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation."In recent months initial claims have been nearly flat over the year, but this decline combined with a 7 percent drop …