The U.S. unemployment rate may increase to 7 percent by the middle of 2009, as poor jobs conditiions 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. 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.