When will Unemployment break below 7.5%?

[Mint]

The White House is now projecting unemployment to cross 10% this year and remain at 9.8% in 2010. If that's the case, the Democrats are in serious trouble. They could be fudging the numbers, though, so if it's better than that, they can claim victory. I just don't trust anything that comes out of this administration.

Every number we get is fudged. Unemployment that doesn't factor in people that are off the rolls, 'inflation' that doesn't factor in the cost of food or gas, bank assets that have been 're-valued' at whatever the bank feels like... How can anyone take any of these official numbers even remotely seriously?

[Mint]

Its possible to see a jobless recovery btw.

How? Our economy is based almost entirely on consumption at this point. If real unemployment remains in the double digits and people's wages are depressed, how can we possibly return to the sort of growth we had a few years back? The people left in the work force aren't going to be able to pick up the slack.