WASHINGTON - Good news in the fight against meth abuse came on two fronts Monday, with reports showing a major drop in methamphetamine lab seizures nationwide and a similar decline in the spread of the drug into the workplace.

Local law enforcement officials say there is still a strong appetite for the highly addictive drug and warned that meth makers in Mexico and other countries are moving to fill the supply void.

The number of meth lab busts plummeted more that 30 percent last year as most states put in place laws to restrict the sale of over-the-counter cold medicines used to make meth, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center.

Meanwhile, the nation's largest drug testing company said Monday that the number of job applicants and workers who tested positive for meth plunged 31 percent over the first five months of this year.

Those figures are based on the results of more than 7 million drug tests in 2005 and about 3 million tests from January to May 2006, conducted by New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics Inc.