Unemployment rate at 10 percent, possible by the mid-terms

Economist Mark Zandi, who has been economic adviser for President Obama, thinks that 10 percent unemployment rate is quite possible before the mid-term elections and no later than the end of the year.

Zandi, who spoke to group of reporters today, said that job losses will continue to be about 50,000 a month, leading to the unemployment rate of 10 percent. Getting the unemployment rate back below 8 percent “will take five years”.

“We need 150,000 in monthly payroll gains to stabilize unemployment. We’re running at 100,000 at best, probably south of that at the moment,” he said. “The math, the arithmetic is clear: unemployment is going to rise.”

So when can we expect to see those 8 million lost jobs again? “It’ll probably take 5 years.”

The good news, Obama will be gone by then.