Some 5.3 million long-term workers were "displaced" from their jobs from January 2001 through December 2003, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

And those workers, who had held their jobs for at least three years before losing them, were not alone, BLS added. As a matter of fact, the long-term workers who lost their jobs were outnumbered by the short-term workers--those who held jobs for less than three years--in that same time period. Of those workers, 6.4 million lost their jobs.

The figures are important because they show that both newly hired workers and veterans lost their jobs during the recession that started virtually the day President George W. Bush entered the Oval Office.

By contrast, in the prior 3-year period BLS surveyed, from Jan. 1999-Dec. 2001--overlapping the last boom years of the Clinton administration and the first year of Bush--4 million long-term workers and 6.1 million short-term workers lost their jobs.

Bush argues the economy is creating jobs and touts recent expansion. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., the Democratic nominee, counters that workers suffer pay cuts and joblessness is up. The BLS data appear to support Bush's contention that displaced workers get new jobs, but also support Kerry's point that they're being paid less.

BLS said 65 percent of the 5.3 million long-term workers who became jobless during the first three years of Bush's government found new jobs, with 20 percent unable to find them and the rest dropping out of the labor force.

That 65 percent translates into 3.17 million long-term workers who became jobless and found new jobs. But "57 percent of long-tenured workers who were displaced from full-time wage and salary jobs and who were reemployed in such jobs had earnings that were lower than those on the lost job. About one-third experienced earnings losses of 20 percent or more," BLS said.

Many of those veterans were factory workers. BLS said 984,000 of long-term workers who lost their jobs--31 percent--were in factories. Long-term jobholders who lost also included 457,000 in retail trade and 203,000 in information industries.

The figures for factory workers were almost as bad once short-term workers were included. Of those 11.4 million short-term and long-term "displaced" workers over the three years, 2.89 million--just over one-fourth--were factory workers, with 2 million of those in durable goods. Wholesale and retail trade was second, but far behind (1.69 million total).

Middle-aged white men were the hardest hit by displacement, and plant closings were the biggest reason. Men aged 25-54 were 44.2 percent (5.04 million) of the total. Another 709,000 were men aged 55-64. There were 9.116 million displaced whites.

Plant closings threw 4.32 million of the displaced workers out of jobs, while "insufficient work" cost another 4.16 million their jobs and 2.94 million had positions or shifts abolished.

This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.