From January 1993 to December 1995, an estimated 8.4 million workers were displaced from their jobs, including 3.8 million long-term workers who had held their jobs for at least three years, the bureau said. Displaced workers are defined as people 20 years or older who have lost their jobs because their plant or company closed or moved, their positions or shifts were eliminated or there was insufficient work for them to do.

Of those 8.4 million workers, roughly six million had successfully found new work by February, when the survey was conducted. Some 16% of those workers remained unemployed, however, and 13% had stopped looking for new jobs and left the labor force. By comparison, 67% of workers in the bureau’s last worker-displacement survey, which was conducted in February 1994 and included the 1991 recession, were able to find new work, while 21% were unemployed.

In signs that the labor market has rebounded since then and that the effects of downsizing may have slowed, 618,000 fewer workers lost their jobs from 1993 to 1995 than in the 1994 survey, and displacement among long-term workers fell 15%.

"We’ve created about 10 million new jobs. It’s been a strong, strong labor market recovery," said economist Audrey Freedman, president of Audrey Freedman & Associates in New York.

Since 1993, 44% of displaced workers lost their jobs because of plant closings. Roughly 24% said there was insufficient work, while nearly a third said their jobs were eliminated. Over 56% said they didn’t receive advance notice that they were losing their jobs.

Nearly three out of 10 displaced workers came from the manufacturing sector. But downsizing took its toll among white-collar workers as well, said Joseph E. Stiglitz, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

"White-collar workers represent a much larger share of those displaced. The share of manufacturing, while large, continues to decline," he said.

But it remains easier for laid-off managers and other white-collar workers to find new work. Nearly 80% of managers were in new jobs by February, while only 64% of operators, fabricators and laborers had been rehired. In part that reflects the changing nature of the economy, but analysts have noted that it is easier for white-collar workers to find new jobs because of a greater number of outside contacts and a wider range of skills.

One worrisome trend that surfaced in the survey was that more than half of workers took new jobs that paid them less, including nearly a third who accepted a job that paid them 80% or less of what they previously had been earning. "The steady upward wage movement that was our wonderful future has stalled," Ms. Freedman said.

In a separate report Thursday, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 6,000 last week to 327,000. The four-week moving average, a closely watched barometer of labor-market trends, rose 1,500 to 314,000. The figures are adjusted for seasonal variations.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act extends new protections to an estimated 25 million Americans in so-called "job lock," a situation in which employees don’t switch jobs for fear of losing coverage due to pre-existing medical conditions.

The legislation includes a phased-in 80% tax deduction for health-insurance premiums for the self-employed by 2006, up from the current 30%. It also allows for the creation of 750,000 medical savings accounts that, much like individual retirement accounts or 401(k) savings plans, would enable individuals to set aside tax-free contributions toward routine medical expenses. Most of the bill’s provisions will take effect July 1, 1997.

The legislation was jointly sponsored by Sens. Nancy Kassebaum (R., Kan.) and Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) and enjoyed widespread support, passing the Senate unanimously and the House 421-2 earlier this month, and both parties sought to claim credit for it Wednesday.

"Today we declare a victory for millions of Americans and their families," President Clinton said. "No longer will you live in fear of losing your health insurance because of the state of your health."

"The American people should ask why it took President Clinton more than three years to support these common-sense reforms, which he previously threatened to veto," Republican presidential nominee Robert Dole said in a statement.

As the parties quibble over the credit, Democrats have done their utmost to reclaim the spotlight during this week’s convention interlude, using the White House as a backdrop to stage several elaborate ceremonies. For Mr. Clinton, this week’s bill signings for a higher minimum wage, health-insurance and welfare reforms and business tax breaks provide a high-profile way for him to seize attention and credit in the wake of the Republicans’ national convention, and in the buildup to his own party gathering next week in Chicago.

En route to the Democratic convention by train next week, the president will seek to keep the spotlight with daily announcements of new initiatives. He’s also expected to clear new restrictions on tobacco marketing Friday.

In particular, Mr. Clinton will propose a still-evolving initiative to help welfare recipients find work through a combination of tax and wage subsidies for employers who hire them. The aid would be coordinated with local governments, aides say.

In addition, the president is expected to pull one long-pending proposal from the White House shelf to permit homeowners to avoid capital-gains taxes on the sale of a primary residence. Under current law, capital-gains tax relief goes to those age 55 and over. In practice, removing the age limit wouldn’t have a major impact since many younger taxpayers sell a home then use the proceeds to buy a more expensive one, avoiding capital-gains taxes in that way.

The White House zeal to pitch new ideas, if minor ones, reflects the competition with Robert Dole now that the Republican presidential candidate has put forth an ambitious tax-cut program. Mr. Clinton’s political advisers would like bolder strokes, but his economic advisers for now have prevailed in limiting initiatives to ideas that have relatively little if any federal cost.

Teenage drug use has more than doubled since 1992, the Department of Health and Human Services said. Nearly 11% of 12-year-olds to 17-year-olds used drugs on a monthly basis last year, and that number has climbed steadily from a low of 5.3% in 1992.

While teenage drug use has increased, usage by older Americans has declined in the same period, and overall levels of drug use have remained flat, the reports said. An estimated 12.8 million Americans used illegal drugs last year, the same rate as in 1992.

At campaign stops Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Robert Dole immediately sought to capitalize on the rise in teenage drug use, depicting the increase as the result of a lax Democratic White House.

"This is nothing short of a national tragedy," Mr. Dole told the Veterans of Foreign Wars annual convention in Louisville, Ky. He vowed "to make the drug war priority No. 1 once again" and said he would host a conference of drug-abuse experts at the White House "to find solutions to put us back on the course to absolute victory."

In response, White House press secretary Michael McCurry insisted the drug war remains a "high priority" with the president. Asked if Mr. Clinton bears some responsibility for the increase in drug use, as some Republicans have asserted, Mr. McCurry said drug experts first noted the upward trend in 1991, before Mr. Clinton’s election. "He understands that there’s more that needs to be done, which is what he has consistently been doing in his time here," Mr. McCurry said.

Tuesday’s political back-and-forth was the latest in a series of Republican attacks on the White House for granting security clearances to staffers who had recently tested positive for illegal drugs. Republican leaders leaked summaries of the reports well in advance of their release, attempting to score some last minute points with voters before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week.

The move comes after some Republicans suggested an announcement earlier this month that juvenile crime had dropped for the first time in nearly a decade had been timed to steal the spotlight from their convention last week in San Diego.

Aside from the rise in drug use by teenagers, Tuesday’s reports also revealed that marijuana usage increased sharply while cocaine and heroin-usage remained the same. An estimated 9.8 million Americans used marijuana in 1995, comprising 77% of illicit drug users.

Additionally, there were nearly 532,000 drug-related hospital emergency room visits last year, nearly the same rate as in 1994. Cocaine-related cases made up 27% of all hospital visits in 1995, while another 14% were heroin-related. Over half of the visits were made by people who had overdosed, the reports said.

The stable prices at the producer level offer a further sign that inflation is under control, analysts said. Bonds were up sharply on the news Friday, with the Treasury Department’s benchmark 30-year issue closing Friday at 100 23/32, up 23/32 point.

"It just doesn’t get much better than this," with declining inflation and strong real growth, said Chris Varvares, a forecaster at Macroeconomic Advisers L.L.C. in St. Louis. The producer price index, which tracks price fluctuations at the producer level, and the consumer price index, its retail-level counterpart that will be released Tuesday, help economists to measure inflation.

The report gives the Federal Reserve yet another reason not to raise interest rates at its Aug. 20 meeting, after data earlier this month indicated average wages and factory orders have fallen recently. Indeed, there were few hints of out-of-control growth in July wholesale prices. Energy prices, which have declined for three months in a row, fell 0.9%, though they were offset by a 0.2% increase in food prices. Automobile prices also fell 0.9%. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, producer prices rose 0.1%.

Not only were prices for finished goods unchanged, but those of intermediate materials that need further processing — such as flour, yarn and lumber — fell 0.3%, excluding food and energy. Similarly, prices for raw materials — like cotton and coal — fell 1.6%. Those drops indicate there is little inflation in the pipeline, analysts said. "If you’re looking at the crude prices, there doesn’t seem to be much pressure there at all," Bureau of Labor Statistics economist Scott Sager said. All figures were seasonally adjusted.

The index’s rise was its fifth in a row, including a 0.3% gain in April and a 0.2% gain in May. Three consecutive increases usually signal that the economy is expanding.

"The economy is on the move again, but the speed of the expansion is uncertain," said Robert Dederick, chief economist at Northern Trust Co. in Chicago.

The index of leading indicators is intended to predict economic activity six to nine months ahead, but many economists say it more accurately reflects current economic conditions. While it is useful for forecasting whether the economy will grow or contract, the index doesn’t indicate the rate at which changes will occur.

For those reasons, analysts said, Monday’s report offered little to resolve their concern about whether the second quarter’s sizzling economic growth will continue in the second half. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned last month that the economy may be growing too quickly, leading to speculation that the Fed will raise interest rates at its monetary-policy meeting Aug. 20.

But reports of rising unemployment and declining wages released Friday strongly suggest that growth in the third quarter will be more moderate, analysts said.