A few months ago, the folks at Bloomberg reported that U.S. unemployment could reach the 9% mark by the end of 2009. Most of us thought that was a frightening assessment.

It turns out that the Bloomberg projection may have been nothing more than an episode of Scooby Doo when compared to the possible Exorcist reality.  The unemployment horror show may be scarier than we imagined.

This morning, President Obama taled about the possibility of double-digit unemployment rates in reaction to the latest Departmet of Labor job numbers.  Obama is convinced that a good stimulus package could turn down the terror dial, but the fact that he’s out there raising the specter of 10%+ jobless rates demonstrates just how bad this situation is getting. 

Based on those new DOL stats, unemployment is already knocking at the 8% door, sitting at 7.6%.

Forbes summarizes today’s data:

The Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls shed 598,000 jobs in January, up from a revised 577,000 jobs lost in December, with unemployment climbing to 7.6%, from 7.2%.  

Forbes says those projections were basically in line with some of the more bearish forecasts.  That might be true for that report, but actual unemployment has been surpassing projections more often than not.  The DOL report says that we lost around 3 million jobs in 2008, a total that exceeded most expectations by 400,000. 

The Chief U.S. economist at Unicredit Global Research, Roger Kubarych, is shocked by just how fast U.S. companies are dumping employees.  Bloomberg quotes Kubarych:

It’s astonishing how quickly American businesses are laying people off…  They’ve learned that they have probably had too much staff for the kind of economy they foresee and they’re laying people off left and right.

If you’re not a little nervous yet, I invite you to take a look at this post on a Wall Street Journal blog.  It’s basically a collection of dire assessments about just how bad the unemployment situation and the “slow motion train wreck” of the U.S. economy is getting.  Warning:  It’s not for the faint of economic heart.

Scary stuff.

And here’s the kicker.  It might actually be even worse than we think.

That 7.6% is nasty, but another unemployment measure pegs the rate at 13.9%. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics refers to this statistic as the “U-6″.  Unlike the usual unemployment benchmark, U-6 considers those who have stopped looking for work.  You see, the usually-quoted figure considers those “who do not have a job, are available for work and have actively looked for work in the prior four weeks.”  

So, when you hear about 7.6% unemployment, we’re talking about people who are actively trying to find jobs.  It doesn’t account for those who’d like a job, but who aren’t currently sending out applications or hitting the local job center.   It also doesn’t include all of the people who lost full-time jobs and have settled for part-time opportunities as a replacement.

Again, the U-6 is on the verge of 14%.  

That’s another way of saying things might be even worse than they appear.

I’m not saying we’re doomed.  I’m not in the prediction business and even if I was a prognosticator, I don’t think I’d be willing to wager on the “standard” measure hitting the 10% mark.  I do, however, think it’s important for all of us–as employers, employees and citizens–to understand what we’re really up against.  Right now, we’re up against a very serious unemployment problem–a problem that may be even more serious than we recognize.