NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said on Wednesday U.S. unemployment could rise to as much as 7.5 percent and it is already hurting consumer loans as well as the housing market. JPMorgan, which bought Seattle-based thrift Washington Mutual's banking units in September, is highly exposed to consumer credit and, speaking at Merrill Lynch & Co's Financial Services Investor Conference, Dimon said losses across the bank's mortgage and credit card portfolios are rising.
Dimon said commercial banks like JPMorgan are seeing the effects of a slowing economy in rising loan losses.
U.S. unemployment rose 0.4 percent to 6.5 percent in October, the highest in 14 years.
"I find it hard to think of why (unemployment) is not going to go at least to 7 percent or 7.5 percent," he said, noting it is affecting both the bank's secured and unsecured loans as well as mortgages.
Any area that has seen housing prices fall sharply -- such as Florida, Arizona and California -- is also experiencing higher losses in auto loans and credit cards, he said.
Dimon said he is optimistic that steps by the U.S. government to improve the economy, such as investing in banks and encouraging them to lend, will work.
"Government actions will be very helpful over time," he said.

(Reporting by Elinor Comlay, editing by Richard Chang) Keywords: JPMORGAN/UNEMPLOYMENT (elinor.comlay@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6116)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.