"There are question marks about how the unemployment rate increase occurred, and whether it might be technical in nature, and therefore likely to be followed by a big drop next month. The household measure of jobs fell 285K while the labor force grew by an unusually high 577K, which typically does not happen in a weak labor market. The result was an 862K increase in the number of people unemployed. It drove the participation rate up from 66.0% to 66.2%. If the participation rate had remained unchanged, the unemployment rate would have 'only' risen to 5.2%."