The scary part of the unemployment numbers is the long term unemployment rate (unemployed longer than 27 weeks) is unchanged and they account for nearly half of the total unemployment. Once the unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted, the 8.5% will be revised and it usually revises higher (probably 8.6%).

What we should really be focusing on is the U-6 Total Employed number ... which is defined total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force..

and the current unrevised U-6 number is 15.2%.