Jobless rate may climb to 7 percent: Macroeconomic

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. unemployment rate may increase to 7 percent by the middle of 2009, as poor job conditions are expected to persist for another 9 to 10 months, Macroeconomic Advisers's Chairman Joel Prakken said on Wednesday.

Earlier, the ADP National Employment Report showed U.S. private employers shed their payrolls by 8,000 jobs in September, less than the 60,000 decline forecast among analysts polled by Reuters.

The ADP employment report was jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers and ADP Employers Services, a division of Automatic Data Processing Inc.

Economists surveyed predicted the jobless rate likely held steady in September at 6.1 percent, a five-year high.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)