The reason these two words have different endings is because they grew from two different root words in Old French, which helped form Old (and Modern) English.
Intense came from the French word intensus, meaning "stretched, strained, tight".
Intensive came from the English word intend, which in turn came from the French words entendre and intendre (essentially the same word), which means "to direct one's attention to".
Interestingly, both of these French words have the same Latin root word intendere, which is literally "to stretch tight", but entendre took a separate path in terms of connotation and meaning and developed into the word we have now.
Any assertion about the truth or untruth of a proposition may be called a "claim".
George claims that the Vikings discovered America.
Angela claims that Meryl Streep is the best living film actor.
Darcy claims that the Republicans will win the presidency next year.
But only an assertion about future eventualities may be called a "prediction". Darcy's claim is a prediction, but George's claim and Angela's claim are not.
Note that future is to be understood here in relation to the time when the prediction is uttered. The internet has been around for a quarter-century, but it is still proper for me to say:
Nicolas Tesla predicted the internet.
—because Tesla made this prediction in 1900.
Note, too, that predict is often in the sciences to speak of what appears to be mere correlation. A sociologist, for instance, may write:
Education is a strong predictor of poverty.
This is a figurative use. What the sociologist means is that if you divide a population into groups by how much education the individuals in each group has, you may "predict" with some accuracy how many poor people will be found in each group—a hypothetical future event.
Your example involves a claim about the future: the number of new jobs created this year will fall short of last year's record. This claim is a prediction.
Best Answer
They're nearly the same. The only difference I can think of is this:
Hobbies tend to be physical/tangible activities carried out by an individual on a regular basis for enjoyment. These could be anything, such as painting, singing, gardening, programming etc.
Interests are generally topics that people are curious or like thinking/reading/watching about, but don't necessarily involve a tangible product or actual activity, for example: elephants, volcanoes, football etc.
As you can probably tell, there is room for considerable overlap between hobbies and interests - a hobby could also be an interest or vice versa. However, usually (and in the scenario you gave), they will be asked for together. This means you can just list a bunch of things you like in general, and they will fall under one of those categories.