Kerry challenges Bush spin on latest jobless figures

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By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU

NEWARK, Ohio - The U.S. economy added 144,000 new jobs last month and unemployment declined to 5.4 percent, but Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry charged yesterday that's not enough to pull President Bush out of the jobs cellar.

"The secretary of labor stood up and said that 144,000 jobs is something to celebrate," Mr. Kerry said on the front lawn of a Newark couple dealing with their second job loss in two years.

"At the rate that this administration is creating jobs, you're not going to have a net-plus-one job in the state of Ohio until the year 2011," he said. "I don't think this is something to celebrate."

Mr. Kerry later spoke before 4,000 people in front of the Licking County Courthouse. The largely rural county east of Columbus favored Mr. Bush over Al Gore by 22 percent in 2000, but the Massachusetts senator is hoping that layoffs at The Longaberger Company, the Owens Corning bankruptcy, and a cut in worker benefits at Kaiser Aluminum will translate into Democratic votes on Nov. 2.

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