(PTI): US President Barack Obama draws a gloomy picture of unemployment in his country, saying that it could grow worse over the next couple of months.

“Probably the jobs picture is not going to improve considerably, and it could even get a little bit worse, over the next couple of months,” Obama said in an interview with CNN on Monday.

216,000 people lost their jobs in August, as the unemployment rate int the United States rose to 9.7 percent, the highest it has been since June 1983.

At the same time, experts are predicting the figure to rise to 10 percent in the near future.

According to Bloomberg, banks worldwide have suffered more than $1.6 trillion in losses and write-downs since the start of 2007.

“We’re probably not going to start seeing enough job creation to” keep pace with “a rising population until some time next year,” Obama said. “You need 150,000 additional jobs each month just to keep pace with” population growth.