Even if Obama gets what he wants (and it actually works), unemployment will still be above what it was when he became president

Remember the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent when Obama became president. If Obama gets what he wants, it looks as if the unemployment rate will still be as high or higher than it was when he took office.

QUESTION: If Congress were to pass the package that the President's going to announce, unemployment would be under 9%?JAY CARNEY: Based on, when you're talking about economic predictions, yes. Economic analysts, economists will be able to look at this series of proposals and say that 'based on history, based on what we know, based on their collective expertise, that it would add to economic growth and cause an increase to job creation.In 2009, the White House said President Obama's stimulus plan would bring unemployment to below 8%.

Meanwhile, the world economy is slowing.

Factories around the world are throttling back, signaling a broadening of the slowdown in economic activity that is raising the specter of a double-dip recession.In the U.S., a survey of purchasing managers showed the factory sector barely expanding in August as the job market struggles to pick up and businesses confront weakening sentiment. Asia's manufacturers also pulled back, with bellwethers such as South Korea and Taiwan contracting while China's expansion slowed further. Meanwhile, manufacturing in a large swath of Europe contracted for the first time in two years as downturns gripping Greece and Ireland threaten larger economies such as Italy and France.The manufacturing reports show how slowdowns in different parts of the world are feeding off one another. Asia's fast-growing economies, for instance, are confronting weakness in the advanced economies that are big buyers of their exports. Likewise, companies in the U.S. and other advanced economies rely on growth in the emerging economies to offset weakness at home. . . .

The Obama administration actually has lower growth forecasts released this week. Is Obama trying to play an expectations game?

President Barack Obama on Thursday sharply cut estimates for U.S. economic growth, underscoring the difficult challenge he faces in spurring a stronger recovery and creating more jobs. . . .

More detail here:

The White House budget office forecast on Thursday that unemployment would remain at 9 percent through the 2012 presidential election year, an outlook that it said calls for the sort of the job-creating tax cuts and spending President Obama will propose next week.

The unemployment outlook for the next 16 months reflects a 9.1 percent rate this year, down slightly from the 9.3 percent forecast when President Obama made his annual budget request in February. Next year, the projected jobless rate is 9 percent, up from 8.6 percent in the February forecast.

Unemployment will not return to the 5 percent range until 2017, the budget office said, reflecting the intensity of the hangover from the most severe recession since the Great Depression. . . .