More on Bush's economy:

Van Luyn's occupational fall may seem extreme, but workers here and across the country are making similar compromises to avoid joining the unemployed. The stubborn 7.3 percent unemployment rate around Grand Rapids is itself a shock for an area accustomed to the success that residents figure comes naturally from hard work and a conservative lifestyle. But unemployment rates understate the tumult and tragedies of a labor market that has forced workers to give up hours and overtime, lose pensions and health benefits, and trade down stable, well-paid jobs for uncertain, increasingly lower-paid ones.

It is difficult to track such turmoil in statistics, but labor economists point to one number watched by the federal government to illustrate what they call "underemployment." Between the trough of July 2000 and this May, the last month for which statistics are available, the number of workers who say they have unwillingly taken part-time jobs because of slack work conditions or because no full-time work was available has risen nearly 47 percent, to 4.6 million from 3.1 million.

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